Youtuber Iskandar Souza and Paulo Gomes recently featured an investigative topic of third-party GPU sellers and resellers painting over certain sections of graphics cards to make them appear newer. The video blames crypto miners for finding more inventive ways to resell overly used graphics cards.
Paint discovered on GPUs sold by crypto miners, deceiving vendors into selling overused graphics cards
Paulo discusses several ways to find out if a graphics card is new. A few warning signs he mentions in the video are screws that appear to be tampered with and missing labels or stickers. However, when discussing the physical look of the graphics card outside of those, users should note a slight yellowish tint on the memory dies and the GPU.
The discussion between Paulo and Iskandar in the video explains that the tint does come from extended wear but also from miners who are knowledgeable of soldering components to other graphics cards. In the video, you can witness the paint being scraped off the chips to uncover the actual color of the board and its components.
The following picture shows the painted DRAM module which has clear markings on it:
The next picture shows the top layer of paint removed by heating it and scratching it off the surface, revealing an overly used graphics card:
The Youtube channel TecLab also followed a similar topic when they discovered used graphics cards being sold out of Brazil as new cards from a brand called AFOX. What tipped the content creators to realize an issue was that the epoxy was a different color than other GPUs from the same manufacturer. The confirmation was conducted during a live-stream event so that users would know and see that there was no falsity during the investigation.
There will always be a risk when purchasing a used graphics card. However, you don't expect these issues to arise when purchasing a brand-new GPU. Yellowing can sometimes appear on a newer component, so it is standard practice if you want to ensure you are purchasing a new graphics card, purchase from a store or website that you can trust, and offer a warranty in case anything should happen.
News Sources: VideoCardz, Iskandar Souza
