is this fake Gigabyte Windforce GeForce GTX960 - 4GB !!

[neox00]

Hello guys so as most f you  am looking for buying a new graphics card mostly to run 3d rendering software like lumion 8 

my question is do you guys think this card is legit or fake !! 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Gigabyte-Windforce-GeForce-GTX960-4GB/173047647146?hash=item284a718baa:g:OeYAAOSwySlaPfEC

 

[zombienerd]

Looks real to me.  

 

The fake cards rarely have brand names on the box, or on the shroud.  They don't go through the trouble of faking a brand name.

[Bananasplit_00]

id say its legit, a new 1050 is €100 or so, this performs a bit worse and is used

[WereCatf]

7 minutes ago, neox00 said:

Hello guys so as most f you  am looking for buying a new graphics card mostly to run 3d rendering software like lumion 8 

my question is do you guys think this card is legit or fake !! 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Gigabyte-Windforce-GeForce-GTX960-4GB/173047647146?hash=item284a718baa:g:OeYAAOSwySlaPfEC

 

The pictures, at least, are legit.

[Guest]

Looks real. I never saw a fake card in Germany, neither I know anyone who has bought one.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Konrad Kwasniewski said:

Looks real. I never saw a fake card in Germany, neither I know anyone who has bought one.

But on amazon you could get a 1050 for around 100 euros, unless you want to bid for the 960.

[neox00]

Thanks guys for the quick replies !! @Bananasplit_00 I a not used to use gtx series mostly bought Quadro cards I would check gtx 1050 

 

[neox00]

my budget is around 100 euros or so, I am trying to look for the best card I can get thanks, Konrad !!

[neox00]

Yes actually, I saw these first coming from China with the same pictures and the same model, even the cooler look sketchy and the price is too cheap as what was said, the ones with the brand name n the box and n the card itself seem to be less sketchy than those.

[TechBruhE]

On ‎12‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 3:01 PM, neox00 said:

Yes actually, I saw these first coming from China with the same pictures and the same model, even the cooler look sketchy and the price is too cheap as what was said, the ones with the brand name n the box and n the card itself seem to be less sketchy than those.

did you even look at the link? the one the thread started with is real

On ‎12‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 2:57 PM, RandomGuy13 said:

I have noticed, at least on UK ebay that there are a load of sketchy GTX 960. This one for example: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/For-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX960-4GB-GDDR5-128Bit-PCI-Express-Video-Graphics-Card-Gift/253313924204?hash=item3afaafbc6c:g:uLIAAOSw401aD~0O

 

The price is way too cheap for that card, and the image shows a much older card, definitely not a 960,  the specs are all wrong, the 960 doesn't have VGA and the card shown doesn't have PCIe power.

 

There are a tonne like this, all by different sellers using similar images and descriptions. I don't know for certain that they are fake, but they do look sketchy af.

 

Your one though looks fine, the image actually shows a 960 and the price is more reasonable. I see no indication that this one is fake.

yeah I just got a fake one I'm about to run some benchmarks with the fake drivers and then flash it to a 4gb 450 and see if legit drivers recognize it, from the digging I've done it seems to be a 4gb GTS 450 with a bios flashed to 4gb GTX 960. and surprisingly its build quality is actually sturdier than some more expensive cards I've had in the past lol.

[D4nt3]

On 12/24/2017 at 4:32 AM, neox00 said:

Hello guys so as most f you  am looking for buying a new graphics card mostly to run 3d rendering software like lumion 8 

my question is do you guys think this card is legit or fake !! 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Gigabyte-Windforce-GeForce-GTX960-4GB/173047647146?hash=item284a718baa:g:OeYAAOSwySlaPfEC

 

Based on the pictures I'm confident it is 100% legit. Don't be concerned if the price seems low. The price of GTX9XX series cards have fallen in response to the GTX1050 and GTX1060 who took over the price point previously held by these cards. In SE Asia where I live, the price of GTX9XX have fallen even lower as distributors dispose of old inventory. 

 

I would suggest going for a GTX1050 if you can find one within your budget. It will give about 10% better overall performance plus it's more power efficient because it does not require any external power, instead, it draws all it's power from the motherboard. Notice that the Gigabyte GTX960 needs to be powered by 2 external PCI power connectors and that's on top of the power it draws from the motherboard. That's one of the reasons why the GTX960 wasn't very popular with users opting to skip it and go with the 950 for cooler operation or either going with the 970 or 980 for faster operation. The 1050 also runs cooler and one fan is enough which means less possibility of noise. 

 

 

[D4nt3]

On 12/31/2017 at 3:39 AM, shawnhovde said:

yeah I just got a fake one I'm about to run some benchmarks with the fake drivers and then flash it to a 4gb 450 and see if legit drivers recognize it, from the digging I've done it seems to be a 4gb GTS 450 with a bios flashed to 4gb GTX 960. and surprisingly its build quality is actually sturdier than some more expensive cards I've had in the past lol.

In the strictest sense of the word, there's really no "fake" NVIDIA or AMD graphics card because the GPU needs to licensed and sourced from them directly. It's not economically feasible for counterfeiters to produce fake cards because the GPU takes up majority of the cost and there's no cheaper alternative. NVIDIA and AMD furthers their protection by controlling the driver that runs these cards. Remember, the licensee (e.g. Asus, Gigabyte, Palit, etc,) doesn't provide the driver, it's NVIDIA and AMD that does that.   

 

However, what you got there is an example of how counterfeiters managed to get around this. It is fake in the sense that it's being misrepresented. Obviously it's not a GTX960, the VGA connector is the dead giveaway. most probably a 6xx or a 7xx series card if you're lucky. While the counterfeiter will not have access to legit GPUs and a license to make cards, he does have access to overruns and excess inventory primarily from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). The worse part is it may be one of the units that failed quality control testing. 

 

Notice that the packaging does not follow NVIDIA's design. The licensee's name or logo (i.e. Asus, Gigabyte, etc) should be on the upper left quadrant, the right upper quadrant usually show's the licensee's branding (i.e. Strix, Windforce, Frozr, etc.). The GPU family should be on the lower right corner bounded by a green highlight that extends to the side of the box. The actual GPU model should be indicated, it cannot simply say "GeForce Series". The only thing they got right was the feature set that's on the lower left quadrant of the box. 

 

By omitting the branding, the counterfeiter has circumvented most copyright and trademark laws, specially China's mediocre copyright laws. Think about it, you can't say it's a fake because it's not a copy of any legit manufacturer. It's a fake of what brand? They never placed any brand on the box. All they said on the box was NVIDIA, and it does have a genuine NVIDIA GPU.  

 

But you're a person of reasonable intelligence and point to that sticker on the card that says NVIDIA GTX960. The response would go something like this, "Oh, NVIDIA means the brand of GPU, and the GTX960 is our internal model number. Thousand apologies for the confusion."  Followed by hypocritical bowing pretending to save face as if he had honor in the first place.

 

They would even argue that there's no misrepresentation because they never said on the box that it's a GTX960. All they said was "NVIDIA GeSeries" which is true and more disturbing because it goes beyond the GTX line and includes all consumer oriented NVIDIA GPUs released from 1999 onwards. In many legal jurisdictions, the box, and what's printed on it, is what advertises the product to the consumer. The serial number sticker does not form part of product representation to the customer because it's a device for product identification designed and for use by the manufacturer.  

 

That's assuming you know who the manufacturer is. I doubt if the maker listed on the box is legit. Actually, you're lucky if there's a manufacturer name on the box at all.

  

[TechBruhE]

20 hours ago, D4nt3 said:

In the strictest sense of the word, there's really no "fake" NVIDIA or AMD graphics card because the GPU needs to licensed and sourced from them directly. It's not economically feasible for counterfeiters to produce fake cards because the GPU takes up majority of the cost and there's no cheaper alternative. NVIDIA and AMD furthers their protection by controlling the driver that runs these cards. Remember, the licensee (e.g. Asus, Gigabyte, Palit, etc,) doesn't provide the driver, it's NVIDIA and AMD that does that.   

 

However, what you got there is an example of how counterfeiters managed to get around this. It is fake in the sense that it's being misrepresented. Obviously it's not a GTX960, the VGA connector is the dead giveaway. most probably a 6xx or a 7xx series card if you're lucky. While the counterfeiter will not have access to legit GPUs and a license to make cards, he does have access to overruns and excess inventory primarily from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). The worse part is it may be one of the units that failed quality control testing. 

 

Notice that the packaging does not follow NVIDIA's design. The licensee's name or logo (i.e. Asus, Gigabyte, etc) should be on the upper left quadrant, the right upper quadrant usually show's the licensee's branding (i.e. Strix, Windforce, Frozr, etc.). The GPU family should be on the lower right corner bounded by a green highlight that extends to the side of the box. The actual GPU model should be indicated, it cannot simply say "GeForce Series". The only thing they got right was the feature set that's on the lower left quadrant of the box. 

 

By omitting the branding, the counterfeiter has circumvented most copyright and trademark laws, specially China's mediocre copyright laws. Think about it, you can't say it's a fake because it's not a copy of any legit manufacturer. It's a fake of what brand? They never placed any brand on the box. All they said on the box was NVIDIA, and it does have a genuine NVIDIA GPU.  

 

But you're a person of reasonable intelligence and point to that sticker on the card that says NVIDIA GTX960. The response would go something like this, "Oh, NVIDIA means the brand of GPU, and the GTX960 is our internal model number. Thousand apologies for the confusion."  Followed by hypocritical bowing pretending to save face as if he had honor in the first place.

 

They would even argue that there's no misrepresentation because they never said on the box that it's a GTX960. All they said was "NVIDIA GeSeries" which is true and more disturbing because it goes beyond the GTX line and includes all consumer oriented NVIDIA GPUs released from 1999 onwards. In many legal jurisdictions, the box, and what's printed on it, is what advertises the product to the consumer. The serial number sticker does not form part of product representation to the customer because it's a device for product identification designed and for use by the manufacturer.  

 

That's assuming you know who the manufacturer is. I doubt if the maker listed on the box is legit. Actually, you're lucky if there's a manufacturer name on the box at all.

  

your making this too complicated. its clear that there are fakes, they aren't licensed. your assuming that they're doing it by the books. they can put anything they want on the box because there's no laws against that in china. and no its not a 6/700 series, like I said in the post above and clarify in my review its a 450, specifically rev 2.

they probably got ahold of a bunch of leftover low end chips and instead of throwing them away theyre flashing a very altered bios, and selling them to people who may not notice. I bought it just to see, and I reported it to ebay, they aren't doing anything about it, so now there is a resource available since nobody has done that specific card.