Will an ebay scammer go this far to send the wrong GPU?

[Adorable Cat]

So I bought a used GTX650 1gb on ebay for 20 dollars, which seemed really low to me but I bought it anyways because hey, it's 20 dollars and if they send me some 10 year old GPU with a changed BIOS or whatever they do to make the system detect it as a different card, I can probably get a refund. It arrived yesterday and seemed to work perfectly, and when I removed the heatsink it had a GTX 650 chip in it. Could the person who sold it have changed the numbering on the chip itself so well it looks authentic, or did I actually get a GTX650 for 20 dollars?

[Mira Yurizaki]

Can you post a picture of the die?

 

I figured those markings are laser etched into the die, so it should be extremely difficult to change it without damaging the die.

[Biggerboot]

It's possible you just got a good deal.  I'd run benchmarks and check GPUz to see if it's in line with what's expected for a GTX 650.  I've heard of people changing the lids on CPU's before but not changing the name on GPUs die.  

[Adorable Cat]

I'll take some pics when I get home later today, the die (the black thing at the center of the chip I think?) looked undamaged, so there's that. 

[showerhandle]

most likely you got a legit one. the amount of effort to go through laser etching is way more costly than 20$. if it is actually etched it is most likely legit.
definitely run some benchmarks. if it runs where it should then you are golden

 

[Biggerboot]

Just now, showerhandle said:

most likely you got a legit one. the amount of effort to go through laser etching is way more costly than 20$. if it is actually etched it is most likely legit.
definitely run some benchmarks. if it runs where it should then you are golden

 

Yeah, unless it's a bootleg from back when the 650 may have been worth something.  But I agree it's probably legit.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

a 650 isnt as powerful as u would expect these days, its probably legit    its like half of a 750ti ... and those arent that good either  and a 970/1060gtx is like 5times as good

[linustouchtips]

you won

[asus killer]

Open gpu z and compare things like shaders and core clock. No point trying to guess when you can easily know what you have.

[Biggerboot]

29 minutes ago, asus killer said:

Open gpu z and compare things like shaders and core clock. No point trying to guess when you can easily know what you have.

Could be a slight chance of a bios reskin on another generation of card with approximate clock speeds.  But most of the time yeah, that would be enough to tell what you have.