Identifying an NVIDIA GPU sold as 1050Ti

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Aug 2, 2018
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My son found a great deal on an NVIDIA Ti on Ebay, despite my warnings that anything that seems to good to be true is in fact going to turn out to be "to good to be true" he ordered it anyways. After getting the card and quickly determining that it is in fact "not" a 1050 Ti I became curious as to what it actually is.

It does in fact appear to have 2GB of GDDR5 SDRAM on it and would likely be a halfway decent card in one of the dozens of old computer systems I have laying around here. But to make any potential use of it I need to unspoof the BIOS which means identifying what the card actually is. We were not lucky enough for it to be obvious, at least not to us at any rate. I am aware that the identification can be made via the processor numbers, but I have found no kind of data base to look the processor up in.

So far what I know for fact.....

This card has 4 chips labeled with...

SKhynix
H5GC2H24BFR
T2C

When I looked this memory up at SKhynix it came back as 2GB GDDR5 SDRAM with 4 or 5 Gbps speed

The processor has this written upon it within a mirrored surface...

NVIDIA
12B5B170 1120A1
S Taiwan
PAC085.001

The card has outputs of DVI at the bottom, center output is VGA (obvious clue that it was not a 1050 Ti) and HDMI as the uppermost output.

DXDIAG ( DirectX Diagnostics ) read the card as having 2GB of GDDR5 SDRAM whereas GPUZ read it as having 4 GB of GDDR5 SDRAM. When the card was run on the computer most any game would return an out of memory error which makes me think that DXDIAG read it properly and that it is in fact just 2GB of GDDR5 SDRAM rather than the 4 read by GPUZ.

On the backside of the circuit board it has some more information.

JH M3 94V-0
18:16 (time of manufacture)
K-1
E467N4319BB

I am not familiar enough with anything NVIDIA to get anything from that and doing searches on any of that has returned zilch. I am hoping that someone with a better knowledge base than I can maybe understand the coding enough to get the basic build or at least point me in the right direction.

Here are a couple pictures with any luck one might recognize the card outright, I have looked up at least 80 different cards and have as yet been unable to match up a single card to this. I have found some very similar cards, but they never have the correct outputs or are missing the SLI.

Here are a couple pictures of this circuit board maybe I will get lucky, stranger things have happened... lol..
 

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I've never even heard of a 1050ti other than the mobile part, but I do know there are China country specific / market specific cards out there and some eventually wind up on eBay from Alibaba / Aliexpress. The important thing is how does it benchmark?
 
You told us what gpu-z said the card memory was, but what does it say about the card? Can you post a picture of the GPU-Z output?
 
I meant officially. I looked on the Nvidia site and they didn't mention it on there.

I don't have any of those cards so ... /shrug
 
I got to thinking that these guys counterfeiting go so far as to give a drivers cd, though the one that my son received only had drivers for win2k, wnXP and Vista so will not work for his Win7 system. We only have one xp computer left setup in the house and one old vista neither of which this card can be placed into, but I got to thinking it has to have an old driver theoretically for a specific card which could also help be of potential use in identifying this card.

I tried to decompile one of the drivers here on my laptop but it didn't work, I will have to try my tower when my wife is done on it and use my visual basic to decompile the file and see if there are any identifying headers as to what the driver actually is on the supplied drivers disc.
 
I think you misunderstood my post..

This is "not" a 10 series card... It is a "counterfeit" card where someone takes an older 450 or 550 etc and goes in and changes the BIOS to read as a 1050 Ti or a 960 Ti etc and then sells it as such.

The card reads as a 1050 Ti so it loads drivers for a 1050 Ti though it is in fact "not" a 1050 Ti it is a much older model. If I can determine what the card actually is, I can go into the cards BIOS and change the card itentification header back to what it should be and then run the card with proper drivers.

The money is being refunded for the card so my son is now buying an AMD gpu for his new tower, but we are left with an older semi viable card if I can identify it. Not particularly important, I suppose if I were to be honest it is more an F you to the counterfeiters than anything else.
 
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I think you mis understood my post..

This is "not" a 10 series card... It is a "counterfeit" card where someone takes an older 450 or 550 etc and goes in and changes the BIOS to read as a 1050 Ti or a 960 Ti etc and then sells it as such.

The card reads as a 1050 Ti so it loads drivers for a 1050 Ti though it is in fact "not" a 1050 Ti it is a much older model. If I can determine what the card actually is, I can go into the cards BIOS and change the card itentification header back to what it should be and then run the card with proper drivers.

The money is being refunded for the card so my son is now buying an AMD gpu for his new tower, but we are left with an older semi viable card if I can identify it. Not particularly important, I suppose if I were to be honest it is more an F you to the counterfeiters than anything else.

can you post a picture of the GPU DIE? a high quality one what's most important it's the chip description look at the images below "GF116-400" that mean it's part of the Fermi uArch, with that number we can tell you what GPU you have.. but according your numbers it should be an Nvidia GTX 500 series... GTX 550 or GTX 550ti my best guess..

bezchladice_velky.jpg


zotacgtx550-11b.jpg
 
MountainGaurdian Ah, I gotcha! It's a totally bogus card. Well, benchies might at least put you in the neighborhood of what card it might be. But if it's eBay, can't you file a claim or reverse charges or ...?

As for the 1050ti, my bad. Like I said, I don't have one, and quick look at the Nvidia shop didn't show any so ... if it unbunches anyone's panties - mea culpa :-D
 
My guess so far has also been a GTX 500 series, though as yet I am unable to prove this. Thanks for the aid...
 
MountainGaurdian Ah, I gotcha! It's a totally bogus card. Well, benchies might at least put you in the neighborhood of what card it might be. But if it's eBay, can't you file a claim or reverse charges or ...?

As for the 1050ti, my bad. Like I said, I don't have one, and quick look at the Nvidia shop didn't show any so ... if it unbunches anyone's panties - mea culpa :-D


My son is getting a refund, but we are left with the card which is a working card, it just isn't what the BIOS says it is so it is unusable due to loading the wrong drivers. If rewrite the card identification in BIOS back to what it should be it should work just fine albeit as a 550 or whatever it actually happens to be.

At this point it is a free card and I have the satisfaction that this Ebay page has been shut down, but the idea of actually getting a semi useful card from these counterfeiters on top of it all just makes feel warm and fuzzy inside...
 
It’s a GTX460 derivative most likely and rarely a 500 series card. The fake market is flooded with these 400 series fakes for cheap. Not worth using unless the kid is playing on an actual potato right now.
 
That's another reason I hesitate buying from eBay anymore. Unless it's the eBay shop for a known retailer - Newegg or one of the big eshops / camera shops. The private / no name sellers just aren't worth the hassle.
 
It’s a GTX460 derivative most likely and rarely a 500 series card. The fake market is flooded with these 400 series fakes for cheap. Not worth using unless the kid is playing on an actual potato right now.

lol... No he has absolutely no intention of using this on his new computer, I thought "I" might use it on one of the old systems I have around, after 20 years of building computers I have dozens of old computers here. The 15 systems that we have setup are most far too advanced to make this card worth wile and the others couldn't fit it anyways, but some of the old systems that I have stored would be potential candidates.
 
That's another reason I hesitate buying from eBay anymore. Unless it's the eBay shop for a known retailer - Newegg or one of the big eshops / camera shops. The private / no name sellers just aren't worth the hassle.

These cards are pretty clearly fake to people with brain cells. You can’t protect everyone from stupid (and kids are definitely stupid) ;)
 
You told us what gpu-z said the card memory was, but what does it say about the card? Can you post a picture of the GPU-Z output?

I took it out of his computer the same day we got it, it said quite a bit of info it, but doubtful much if any of it was accurate, though now I am wishing that I had kept track of what all it did say. I might have to go ahead and reinstall into another computer though going through the driver issues again does not thrill me, I had to modify the .ini files just get it to install in the first place.
 
It's one of those things - you see something on offer and the price is amazeballs. Should you pull the trigger? Nah! But what if it's legit and you passed on it? Some people can't refuse / turn down / risk that chance ...

Without knowing how much the OP (his son) paid we'll never know if it was a good decision / risk or not :-D
 
This GTS 460 it's the closer i have found to your image OP. so it may be around that..

View attachment 93670
That is the closest image yet and I have looked at a great many over the last few days. the only thing missing is the SLI and the VGA and HDMI outputs are interchanged but that doesn't mean that this card isn't a GTS 460. Thanks for the input.
 
It's one of those things - you see something on offer and the price is amazeballs. Should you pull the trigger? Nah! But what if it's legit and you passed on it? Some people can't refuse / turn down / risk that chance ...

Without knowing how much the OP (his son) paid we'll never know if it was a good decision / risk or not :-D
He paid about $73 US the price was $98 Canadian, though it is refunded at this point so no cost.
 
I wonder, is there any chance that the K-1 on the circuit board signifies Kepler architecture? That would help narrow this down some.
 
I wonder, is there any chance that the K-1 on the circuit board signifies Kepler architecture? That would help narrow this down some.

sadly no, Im 100% sure it's about a Fermi GPU, as that's what the PCB design point to. the thing it's now discover and find which exactly is. but fermi cover a lot on the 450/460 and 550/560 series.. and that's on the most known brands, we have to remember there are specific market GPUs, but im pretty sure it's a mid range Fermi GPU
 
Ok, from what I learned the "PAC" on the GPU should give me the architecture of the card, though I cannot find an architecture labeled as PAC anywhere, one could potentially make the jump "Pascal" though that would make the card a bit newer than I would expect, especially with a VGA output on the unit.
 
One thing that has been throwing me in all of this is the lack of VGA ports on almost all cards that I can find. Even the 450, 460, 550 and 560 cards appear to be missing VGA output ports according to the GeForce website and the pictures that I can find.
 
Man this is hard, closest I've gotten are these: all Chinese 550ti models.



That top board is so close it has to at least be the same manufacturer, any name attached to that?

That top card also has the same SKhynix memory on it as this one does.
 
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That top board is so close it has to at least be the same manufacturer, any name attached to that?
AFOX
6_550ti.jpg

Link with more pictures and info. I tried searching for more AFOX cards, but couldn't find one that quite matched yours. Is quite close though!
 
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I found a number of very close AFOX cards myself no matches but as of bed time last night I was thinking it was likely an AFOX, though I haven't been able to get any closer today.
 
Watching a video another thought occurred to me, it has to be old enough that one can easily spoof the BIOS, the newer cards that is not possible with, they have probably set the security bit on the chip. When did NVIDIA lock down the BIOS I wonder? That should give me a limit on how new the card can be. The 2GB GDDR5 memory limiting how old it can be.
 
If it has 2 GB of GDDR5, it’s most likely a 650ti/660/660ti card.

That sounds closer to me based on the memory. If it is a Kepler card, it's still pretty useful. I have a 660 in my HTPC, and play quite a few modern games on it fairly well. Not bad for a secondary machine card.
 
Going on "Fermi" architecture and GGDR5 memory I came up with these potential possibilities....

GT 340 Feb **, 2010 gddr5 1GB
--------------------------------------------
GT 430 Oct 11, 2010 Fermi gddr5 2GB<<<<<<<<< ( GT430
GT 440 Feb 1, 2010 Fermi gddr5 2GB<<<<<<<<< ( GT440
GTS 450 Sep 13, 2010 Fermi gddr5 1GB
GTX 460 Sep 24, 2011 Fermi gddr5 2GB<<<<<<<<< (GT460
GTX 465 May 31, 2010 Fermi gddr5 1GB
GTX 470 Mar 26, 2010 Fermi gddr5 1.3GB
GTX 480 Mar 26, 2010 Fermi gddr5 1.5GB
GEF 510 Sep 29, 2011 Fermi ddr3**********
GT 520 Apr 12, 2011 Fermi ddr3**********
GT 530 May 14, 2011 Fermi ddr3**********
GT 545 May 14, 2011 Fermi gddr5 1GB
GTX 550 Ti Feb 17, 2011 Fermi gddr5 1.5GB
GTX 555 May 14, 2011 Fermi gddr5 1GB
GTX 560 May 17, 2011 Fermi gddr5 2GB<<<<<<<<< ( GTX560
GTX 560 Ti Jan 25, 2011 Fermi gddr5 2GB<<<<<<<<< (GTX560 Ti
GTX 570 Dec 7, 2010 Fermi gddr5 2.5GB<<<<<<?
GTX 580 Nov 9, 2010 Fermi gddr5 1.5GB3GB
GTX 590 Mar 24, 2011 Fermi gddr5 1.5GB3GB
GT 620 Apr 3, 2012 Fermi ddr3**********
GT 625 Feb 19, 2012 Fermi ddr3**********
GT 630 May 15, 2012 Fermi gddr5 .8GB
GT 635 Feb 19, 2013 Fermi ddr3**********
GT 640 Apr 24, 2012 Fermi gddr5 2GB<<<<<<<<< (GT 640
----------------------------------------------
GTX 645 Apr 22, 2013 Kepler gddr5 1GB
GTX 650 Sep 13, 2012
GTX 650 Ti Mar 26, 2013
GTX 660 Sep 13, 2012
GTX 660 Ti Aug 16, 2012
GTX 670 Jun 4, 2012
GTX 680M Jun 4, 2012
GTX 690 Apr 29, 2012


So this card will likely fall within this group... GT430, GT440,GT460, GTX560, GTX560 Ti, or the GT640 as long as this card is "Fermi" architecture which seems almost a given.
 
From some more searching it appears that out of that list only the GTX460 and the GTX560 Ti appear to have the SLI bridge. Can anyone back this up?

I might should add the GTS 450 and the 550 Ti into my list though they don't show a manufacture with 2GB memory, doesn't mean that somebody didn't add more memory, the GTS450 and 550Ti also does come with the SLI bridge.


So I am looking at the GTS 450, GTX460, GTX550Ti and the GTX560Ti as my likely candidates at this point.

I think I can remove the 560Ti beings all that I can find are dual power connectors on them...

By circuit board layout I am going to have to go with either GTS450 or GTX550Ti.

I have been checking into third party manufacturers in Asia and have come up with two so far, one is "Colorful Igame" and the other "Galax". This card would likely be one of the old cards that were originally used for crypto mining and then retired as the new ASIC has phased out gpu based crypto mining.

If the Chinese third party manufacture theory is correct along with a number of other theoretical assumptions then I should be able to remove a Chinese manufactured GTS 450 from consideration beings all that I can find list 1GB memory, leaving me with likely a Chinese manufactured GTX 550 Ti as the final result.
 
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