Is this graphics card a "fake"?

A

allinaspect

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Aug 8, 2009
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I bought a card off ebay which was advertised as being a Galaxy 9600GT "Green edition". You can see the auction here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140336786839&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

When I recieved the card, it booted up the first time and the bios said it was a 9600GT but I immediately found something fishy when it wouldn't let me install the latest drivers downloaded from the Nvidia site which is what I normally do with a new graphics card. I had to use the driver cd included with the card, but it turns out these were custom forceware drivers which made me suspicious, something called dox's custom forceware 180.xx. Also, when I analyzed the card with rivatuner, it says there the clock speed is 550Mhz, and the memory is clocked at 800Mhz, and only 32 Stream processors instead of 64 there should be. So, I decided to open up the card and have a look at the serial number on the chip. Here is a picture I took of it.

http://img269.imageshack.us/i/chipcloseup.jpg/

The code says G96-250-B1. According to this website
, it says that the chip with that serial numer is for a 9500GS gpu, which seems to match up with the specs that RivaTuner found. So my theory is that this card has a modified bios, to make it seem as though the card is a 9600GT when it is in fact a 9500GS. Do you think I'm right to say this?
 
A 9600Gt is a G94 core, a 8800GT is a G92 core. So I think thats a fake card. I would agree with you, that it has a modified bios on it.

32 shaders is in no way a 9600GT. sorry man. Try to get ur money back. Thats sad that someone had to do it. How much did you pay?
 
The Galaxy Rep (who lurks on this board imo) would probably like to speak with you :)

His Username is Shane Vance
 
Yeah, your suspicions look right. The G96-250-B1 is a 9500GS.
 
2wiced said:
Here buy this, its faster than the gt.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150426

theres other cards for better prices out there. Just an idea.
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Nope. That's a gimped 9600GSO. A regular G92 9600 GSO (96 shaders enabled) has a 192-bit memory bus with 2x faster GDDR3. If it were cheaper it may not be a bad PhysX or F@H card.

A low power evga 9600GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130485 $63 after $10 rebate + free shipping.
 
Here's a supposed pic of the Galaxy 9600GT Green Edition

http://en.expreview.com/2009/02/10/galaxys-geforce-9600gt-green-edition-has-been-leaked.html

a2419l.jpg
 
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2wiced said:
A 9600Gt is a G94 core, a 8800GT is a G92 core. So I think thats a fake card. I would agree with you, that it has a modified bios on it.

32 shaders is in no way a 9600GT. sorry man. Try to get ur money back. Thats sad that someone had to do it. How much did you pay?
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Yeah, I've already filed a claim against him, because I was 99% sure he was pulling a scam, so hopefully I will get my money back (cost was £50). I've also sent an e-mail to other buyers who have bought the same card advising them to do the same.
 
allinaspect said:
Yeah, I've already filed a claim against him, because I was 99% sure he was pulling a scam, so hopefully I will get my money back (cost was £50). I've also sent an e-mail to other buyers who have bought the same card advising them to do the same.
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then why did you still buy it? 99% is a pretty high percentage.........regardless, hope you get your money back
 
enzolt said:
then why did you still buy it? 99% is a pretty high percentage.........regardless, hope you get your money back
Click to expand...

I believe he came to that conclusion after he started investigating his purchase.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
there were a few nVidia boards labled "Green Edition" about 8 months ago, it was their stab at being trendy, I don't think any of them are currently in production (or at least easily available, I should say), they were mostly cripled boards in order to make them "more eco friendly" and so on

as far as this board being a bit "odd" from BIOS and similar, few thoughts:

A) it actually is a Green Edition board, and you're reacting over nothing

B) its a Dell OEM board (Dell is notorious for producing non-standard nVidia based boards, have been doing it since GeForce 6, most of them are screwy)

C) its a 9500GT with a flashed BIOS to report "9600GT" as its name, given the small PCB, massive spelling errors (this is where I would've moved on, personally, because "despatch" is not a word), and ridiculous claims made by the seller, I'd probably lean on this option most heavily (if not this option, B, and the seller is just a moron)
 
well hopefully ya get one more idiot banned from fleabay... i guess some one had to do the dirty work and buy it to catch this idiot..
 
obobski said:
B) its a Dell OEM board (Dell is notorious for producing non-standard nVidia based boards, have been doing it since GeForce 6, most of them are screwy)
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The 6800GTO was a nvidia-created product, not a "non-standard nvidia based board." :rolleyes: I thought we all understood this *5 years ago*. How long are these myths going to drag out?
 
Actually the auction says 9600GT MOBILE.

I looked up 9600GT Mobile, and Google found this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=274035

Quote: "The 9600M GT is a G96. G96 is the desktop 9500GT. The 9600M GT GDDR3 should perform like the 8700M GT, but cooler and consumes less (and thus can be more OCed)."

It's certainly an unusual card (mobile GPU in a desktop? Sure it will run cooler and consume less power but really who needs to save THAT much power in a desktop?)
 
pxc said:
The 6800GTO was a nvidia-created product, not a "non-standard nvidia based board." :rolleyes: I thought we all understood this *5 years ago*. How long are these myths going to drag out?
Click to expand...

not even what I was getting at, but whatever
also, 6800GTO was exclusive to OEMs, and would classify as "mildly odd" in my book in terms of working outside of Dell's drivers

thanks for flaming though, your contribution really did help, and you've won the thread as a result :)

@ ualdayan:
the thing is, you can't just buy the tray chipsets, and "build-a-bear" your own graphics card, 9600M GT is available as an MXM module, it looks like this:
http://techreport.com/r.x/2008q2/9600mgt.jpg

so if the guy is legitimately claiming the board to be a "mobile chipset on a desktop card", then yeah, I'd call fud, because its about as realistic as the ~'03 "FX 5950 Ultra with custom upgrades" where the guy claimed he modified the shader units and some other BS to the core, just to jack the price up a bit (and ebay decided in his favor ;))
 
Honestly with the way nVidia plays with names (this card is the same as this card, is the same as this card, with 3 different names) it makes it hard to know what you're getting. This guy says the card has a 9600GT Mobile, which just so happens to be the same thing as a lower voltage desktop 9500GT according to another site.

The way nVidia names their mobile and desktop chips seems to intentionally try to confuse people, and these are the kinds of results from that practice.
 
obobski said:
not even what I was getting at, but whatever
Click to expand...
Care to elaborate then, or did I deflate your detraction?

Ualdayan said:
Actually the auction says 9600GT MOBILE.
...
It's certainly an unusual card (mobile GPU in a desktop? Sure it will run cooler and consume less power but really who needs to save THAT much power in a desktop?)
Click to expand...
Interesting. Not really fraud, but definitely buyer beware.
 
pxc said:
Interesting. Not really fraud, but definitely buyer beware.
Click to expand...
Well, that would still be fraud since there is no "mobile" 9600GT for desktop computers. Just because a 9500GT uses the same GPU doesn't make it an equivalent product. So it is still false advertising, either way.
 
I don't agree. The listing goes out of its way to state over and over what GPU it uses. And the card looks like an actual official product: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/220964452/GeForce_9600GT_256MB_TC_to_512MB.html

I do have sympathy for the OP, but it looks like he got exactly what was advertised. No fraud, just a confusingly named product. But all the info was available in the auction to clear that up. Live and learn (and possibly return). :p

There have also been lower end ATI cards for desktops that used mobile parts in the past, so this type of thing isn't exactly new.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
on the actual listing, there is a picture of riva tuner, which clearly shows 32sp :S
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I don't know about you but I don't read the description, specifications, or look at the pictures. My Ebay buying process is glancing at the title briefly. It's why I own 100+ empty game console boxes.

:D
 
The worst thing about this is that the card was made to sell for around $50.
 
Buying a video card from eBay (unless from a REAL vendor, like EVGA's store or TD, etc.) is your biggest mistake. Add to the part where you didn't read through the item description is the second mistake. NEBER EBER trust evilBay - if there's a fine print, read it 10 times and then send it off to 10 lawyers :)
 
pxc said:
I don't agree. The listing goes out of its way to state over and over what GPU it uses. And the card looks like an actual official product: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/220964452/GeForce_9600GT_256MB_TC_to_512MB.html
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I see, thanks. I had no idea that a mobile 9600GT is actually a 9500GS or GT, I just assumed it was a regular 9600GT because the item specs in the auction list the card as having a gpu clock speed of 650Mhz, and mem speed of 1800Mhz, the same as a 9600GT, but the default clock/mem speeds are nowhere near that (550/800).
 
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allinaspect said:
I see, thanks. I had no idea that a mobile 9600GT is actually a 9500GS or GT, I just assumed it was a regular 9600GT because the item specs in the auction list the card as having a gpu clock speed of 650Mhz, and mem speed of 1800Mhz, the same as a 9600GT, but the default clock/mem speeds are nowhere near that (550/800).
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's more nVidia's naming practices that got you more so than the seller (who did provide full details in the screenshots of all the technical aspects.)
 
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