[SOLVED] Counterfeit GPU??? Supposedly RTX 2060 SUPER

[My PC Hates Me]

I am worried about a GPU I bought on ebay. I bought an RTX 2060 SUPER with 8GB of RAM but the card is VERY SMALL. It is only 7.5 inches long and only about 4 inches tall. Plus it only has ONE FAN. The seller says it came with his Alienware Aurora R9, but it is smaller than the GTX 960 that came with my Lenovo ideacenter from a few years ago. Most RTX 2060 SUPERS are significantly bigger and have TWO fans or more.

This card has one display port, one hdmi, and one dvi port.

How can I tell if this card is legit or not? I here that people can alter the bios on the card so that it will SAY it is a certain card in device manager / Nvidia App.
I don't know how to post pictures on this forum of the card but here is a link to the original ebay listing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2060-SUPER-8GB-GDDR6-OC-Ready-/164006484434?hash=item262f8c59d2:g:16EAAOSwTR9eBUTb&nma=true&si=Ec15Tgsh6FRobJr%2BTbRVTVVSU70%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[Phaaze88]

Yeah, I might be able to test it out in my son's computer tomorrow. Can't get him to stop playing CS GO long enough for me to get at his machine though.

LOL!

 

[My PC Hates Me]

I think the larger problem is that it wasn't a very good purchase even if it is legit. $330 with shipping for a card that won't have warranty service and a very basic cooling solution is a pretty terrible price when new 2060 Supers can be found with shipping for $400. Even knowing for a fact that it's legit, I wouldn't have gone over$250 on this.

Fair enough. I was kind of hoping to score a bit of a deal because I just spend a boatload of money on cameras and lenses, plus about $100 on a new PSU, and a lot of Christmas presents.

I don't know how HARD I will be using the card. I probably won't ever try to overclock it or anything like that. I will be doing LIGHT gaming at the most, like Overwatch and Paladins (don't laugh).

But mostly I will be using it for video editing with Davinci Resolve, where they suggest 8GB Ram minimum for 4K editing.

Is there any best practices for keeping the card cool then?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Yeah, I might be able to test it out in my son's computer tomorrow. Can't get him to stop playing CS GO long enough for me to get at his machine though.

This would be the best solution. If you clean the paste off to see what the GPU is, you will have to apply new paste.

 

[My PC Hates Me]

Basically you can unscrew the heatsync and wipe the thermal paste off of the GPU chip itself with a paper towel.

There will be markings under this thermal paste. A legitamate RTX2060 super should have a marking starting with TU.

If there are no markings or the markings are incorrect (they start with GK or GF for example), the GPU is possibly fake.

Thank you.

OK, once the new PSU comes in I will try to run GPU-Z first and see what I come up with. If that doesn't give us a clear indication, then I will try to view the GPU chip as you suggest.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Fair enough. I was kind of hoping to score a bit of a deal because I just spend a boatload of money on cameras and lenses, plus about $100 on a new PSU, and a lot of Christmas presents.

I don't know how HARD I will be using the card. I probably won't ever try to overclock it or anything like that. I will be doing LIGHT gaming at the most, like Overwatch and Paladins (don't laugh).

But mostly I will be using it for video editing with Davinci Resolve, where they suggest 8GB Ram minimum for 4K editing.

Is there any best practices for keeping the card cool then?

First, see what temps actually are.

Good case airflow with a few fans can help temps. Your GPU can also be undervolted to reduce temps.

 

[My PC Hates Me]

We will have to see the GPUZ info to really be sure.

Thanks. I will post it here once I get the new PSU. But you are pretty sure that GPU-Z can't be fooled?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Thanks. I will post it here once I get the new PSU. But you are pretty sure that GPU-Z can't be fooled?

It can. But 99% of the time it will immediately flag it as a fake.

You will probably see something like this if its fake.

GPUz can see nearly everything about a GPU most times.

It can see what the GPU chip is exactly and use this to see roughly what the card actually is. The fake 1050ti above actually uses a die you would see on a 400 or 500 series card from more than 5 years ago.

 

[My PC Hates Me]

It can. But 99% of the time it will immediately flag it as a fake.

You will probably see something like this if its fake.

GPUz can see nearly everything about a GPU most times.

It can see what the GPU chip is exactly and use this to see roughly what the card actually is. The fake 1050ti above actually uses a die you would see on a 400 or 500 series card from more than 5 years ago.

Thanks so much for all the assistance!!!

 

[My PC Hates Me]

Hi again, everyone, and thanks for your patience.

Well, I just got my new PSU and the graphics card installed, and I GUESS it is legit? Here are a couple of screen shots:

I noticed that when I clicked on "lookup" in GPU-Z it said the graphics device lookup failed.

Is there a free benchmark to test it out?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Be careful with it though. And try to find out as quickly as possible. Within a certain period, I think you can file a case and say your item was not as described.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Hi again, everyone, and thanks for your patience.

Well, I just got my new PSU and the graphics card installed, and I GUESS it is legit? Here are a couple of screen shots:

I noticed that when I clicked on "lookup" in GPU-Z it said the graphics device lookup failed.

Is there a free benchmark to test it out?

Thanks in advance.

Lookup failed since its an oddball GPU and not a standard partner model.

Run unigine superposition to test it

 

[cryoburner]

I think the larger problem is that it wasn't a very good purchase even if it is legit. $330 with shipping for a card that won't have warranty service and a very basic cooling solution is a pretty terrible price when new 2060 Supers can be found with shipping for $400. Even knowing for a fact that it's legit, I wouldn't have gone over$250 on this.

That kind of pricing would be quite unrealistic for a 2060 SUPER. Looking at completed listings on ebay, aside from one nonfunctional card, the absolute minimum a pre-owned 2060 SUPER went for in North America was around $310 shipped, with nearly all of them in the $320+ range, with this ~$320 listing showing up as one of the least-expensive 2060 SUPERs sold on the service over the last few months.

Sure, I would have personally paid a bit more for a more recognizable model with a larger multi-fan cooler, but I would hardly say it was a "terrible price" for a 2060 SUPER. That is at least about $80 less than what a new one would cost from an online retailer, after all, and you are unlikely to find one pre-owned for less. Assuming the card works fine and doesn't fail within the next couple years, it seems like a reasonable price to me.

The length of the cooler doesn't necessarily always reflect its cooling capacity either. From the look of the card, the heatsink does have a decent number of tightly spaced metal fins. It will probably be somewhat more audible under load than a dual-fan card that can spin its fans slower, but its cooling capacity might be fine. It's probably worth running some benchmarks and monitoring temperatures first though.

 

[My PC Hates Me]

Lookup failed since its an oddball GPU and not a standard partner model.

Run unigine superposition to test it

Any suggestion on WHICH test to run?

I just did a quick test at 1080p Medium wwith DriectX and this is what I got.

I clicked the Compare Results and that puts me on Page 18 which is near 1080s / 1080 TIs and a 2070.

 

[Remeca]

Just based on the pictures, I'd say it's legit. Counterfeit cards don't generally use branding, just generic "cool" looking cheap plastic shrouds. Googling it reveals that several manufacturers made single fan versions of the 2060S, its not too out there that an OEM ordered some with generic Nvidia branding.

 

[My PC Hates Me]

And here's the same 1080p Medium test using OpenGL this time instead of Direct X

 

[Jason H.]

Its seems to be real as it shows its a "Dell GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER" meaning it was an OEM card that looks bad because it wasnt really meant to be taken out or shown off. Also Dell owns Alienware.

Also your scores seem to be on point. Have you tested any games?

 

[My PC Hates Me]

Its seems to be real as it shows its a "Dell GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER" meaning it was an OEM card that looks bad because it wasnt really meant to be taken out or shown off. Also Dell owns Alienware.

Also your scores seem to be on point. Have you tested any games?

Thanks for the thoughts.

Actually, I haven't tested it out yet in any actual games. Any suggestions for a game to try it out on that is free???

This may sound stupid, but I am actually not much of a gamer. (I do have a steam account through but only have games like Paladins and Garfield Cart).

The reason i got this card was for 4K video editing in DaVinci Resolve, since that program recommends a minimum of 8GB of VRAM for editing 4K videos.

DaVinci Resolve has a "System Diagnostics" test to see how good your system can run the software, but it is only for Mac and I amd on a PC.

I'll try it out in Resolve and see how well it does though.

 

[Jason H.]

Thanks for the thoughts.

Actually, I haven't tested it out yet in any actual games. Any suggestions for a game to try it out on that is free???

This may sound stupid, but I am actually not much of a gamer. (I do have a steam account through but only have games like Paladins and Garfield Cart).

The reason i got this card was for 4K video editing in DaVinci Resolve, since that program recommends a minimum of 8GB of VRAM for editing 4K videos.

DaVinci Resolve has a "System Diagnostics" test to see how good your system can run the software, but it is only for Mac and I amd on a PC.

I'll try it out in Resolve and see how well it does though.

Apex Legends. Depending on your CPU you should be seeing anywhere from 140-220 fps in apex legends with the 2060s. Avg is about 180. But mines overclocked so maybe knock 10-15 frames off of that for yours.

The settings used for those numbers is LOW EVERYTHING besides Texture Streaming Budget (turned to 8gb) AntiAliasing turned to TSAA and Anistropic Filtering turned to Trilinear on 1080p.