NVIDIA is warning buyers that there are falsified GPUs and graphics card circulating. Cheaper GPUs have been rebranded to be sold at a higher price, which is not that uncommon, but it is not every day NVIDIA is the target. It advices sales people to only buy products from authorized distributors.
Falsified circuits, or rebranded circuits, was common back in the days, before they started locking the circuits. AMD K6 is the most obvious example, since all processors shipped with an unlocked multiplier many altered the frequency of the processor to be able to sell it as a more expensive model. It can lead to stability problems, and that customers lose faith in the brand. It is not uncommon for this to happen today, but then it is mainly overclocking and BIOS flashing that is involved.
NVIDIA has now made an official statement saying that falsified circuits are circulating, or more precisely, rebranded circuits and it advices retailers to only buy cards from authorized distributors.
“Reseller who do not purchase from authorized partners run the risk of putting substandard products in their customer’s hands. That can only lead to higher returns rates and damaged relationships with consumers,” Fiona Faulkner, säljdirektör för GeForce grafikkort
How long this problem will be around, or what may have caused it to happen in the first place was not revealed. NVIDIA has chosen not to comment and whether you are risking to buy a fake card around these parts we don’t know. It sounds like NVIDIA simply wants to move around the problem by urging shops to stick with the authorized channels.
Source: MicroScope
