Fake Ryzen 7 9800X3D spotted in China
As the fastest processor for PC games is still in short supply and overpriced, it is now being counterfeited. The fakes are easy to spot.
A real 9800X3D with green PCB and as a photo, not as a scan or render image.
(Image: c't)
Several apparently unrelated reports of counterfeit AMD processors have emerged in Chinese forums and online media. The fakes are said to have been offered on Chinese marketplaces for private sales. However, there are also indications that dealers have been deceived by manipulated returns.
In the Chiphell forum, there is an alleged scan of a document that cannot be checked for authenticity, which appears to show the examination of a returned CPU by a dealer. According to the scan, it was returned without any functions. What is also striking about this scan itself is that the document – does not refer to the label on the processor – as a "Ryzen 9 9800X3D". However, AMD's ongoing gaming champion is called "Ryzen 7 9800X3D (starting from 435,22 €)".
Probably defective Ryzen 7000 relabeled
The heatspreader of the suspected fake is also labeled like this. Some other imprints have been made unrecognizable in the scan. However, the processor's circuit board (PC) is said to be painted blue, not green like the original. The model number of the PCB on the fake indicates that of a Ryzen 7000, which matches the color. This means that counterfeiters have probably converted an old and possibly defective processor. Such procedures have been around for decades.
In the case of the Ryzen 9000, all you have to do is change the print, because at a cursory glance, the processors look like the Ryzen 7000. However, just counting the SMD components such as capacitors on the top would expose the counterfeit. Judging by the pictures, however, the conversions that have now been found are more likely to be clumsy fakes. In the late summer of 2024, deceptively genuine Ryzen 7000s without chips appeared, which must have been produced much more elaborately.
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Fakes also used for return fraud
As the website Onikos Hardware, which reports on the current incident, writes on X, there are said to be other cases that retailers are now also warning about. These are said to be cases of return fraud: Boxes of original goods are being returned with fake CPUs. This has also happened before, and retailers can only protect themselves by checking incoming goods carefully. If such fakes end up with another customer, the same applies: Packaging that has already been opened should always be a warning signal, especially in the case of processors.
For customers, the old rule of thumb applies anyway, and not just with dubious online sources: suspiciously cheap offers are always actually suspicious. Caution is advised with "tray goods" without boxes, which are actually intended for sale to PC manufacturers, as well as with packaged boxed versions.
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