RFH: Another fake chinese GFX

[Halflite]

Hello All,

A little background: My partner has purchased me a '4gb 1050ti' of ebay for £51.89, which has obviously turned out to be fake. We have managed to get a refund for her, however the seller does not seem to want to pay for the card to be returned (for those who seem to ask, the seller was 'rabbit-inside', and the listing was entitled "GTX1050TI 4G 128BIT DDR5 VGA HDMI Graphics Card For NVIDIA GeForce RA" - unfortunately, the listing has now been removed by ebay). I actually quite like this card - it gives a performance increase over my old Palit 650 (more likely a rebranded 450R1 from what I can see), and as I only work part time due to health issues, a free upgrade would be very much appreciated (and would probably make my partner feel a little better too ;-) ).

However, it reports its memory as 4GB, when in reality it only has 2GB, which obviously causes issues with some software. I don't currently have a picture of the whole card, but I have dismantled it and can confirm it has:
GPU: GF116-200-KA-A1
Mem: Elpida W2032BBBG-50-F (x8, giving 8x2Gbits=2GB RAM)
BIOS: Winbond 25x20CLNIG (marked U4)

Also GPU-Z reports
Shaders: 192 unified
ROPS: 16
TMU: 12
Bus: 128bit

And therein lies the rub...I cannot find a bios for this GPU that support 2GB, nor one that supports less RAM and has an exact match for the shaders/rops/tmus. I have tried a couple of 450 and 550 BIOSes (using a CH341A USB programmer and SOIC lead), and they appear to flash OK, but have graphical corruption on boot.

NiBiTor and FermiBiosEditor are both unable to open the original BIOS for editing. I have tried looking through the "NVIDIA BIOS Information Table Specification" in the hope of manually editing the BIOS, but cannot find where the memory size of the card might be stored.

Would anybody have any ideas on how to proceed with this? I know you're all probably bored to death with these threads by now, but I would truly appreciate any ideas you may have.

Many Thanks!



.

 

[W1zzard]

GPU-Z screenshot and card photos please

 

[TheMadDutchDude]

Hate to tell you, but that core is a 450 GTS.

 

[Caring1]

Yep, revision 2 or 3, the difference is the vRam, one has GDDR5, the other has GDDR3, and both only have 1024Mb.
The "W" in the Ram part number indicates it is the GDDR5 Ram.

 

[Halflite]

Hello All!!

Many thanks for your replies, and apologies for the delay in posting - I've been waiting for some good light to take the card pictures.

Attached are the GPU-Z screenshot, and photos of the front and rear of the card, chip numbers etc appear legible (just!), let me know if they are no good, or you need anything further. It may be worth noting that it didn't originally have the 6 pin PCIe power connector (I added that to see if it would help with overclocking...It didn't, but nothing blew up, so I'm counting that as a win ;-) )

I had come to the conclusion this card was probably a 450 (or 550...nvidias numbering scheme isn't straightforward to me). A quick check of TechPowerUp GPU database shows there are mobile GPU's with this core and 2GB, however, the ROPs/TMUs/etc don't match, and I'm unsure how a mobile BIOS would work on an actual card even if they did match.

Thanks again for your responses!

 

[Solidus1983]

Just recently done one of these cards (Flashing it back to its original setup) It's a 450 GTS. Now the VBIOS chip is requiring 3.3v if you still need a hand let me know i still the files for both the scammed VBIOSes and the one I used to return it to stock.

Same PCB here is you PIN1 location

 

[eidairaman1]

here is the datasheet for the BBBG Ram but the 8ABG/BABG Ram has no info though
https://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/458074/ELPIDA/EDW2032BBBG-50-F.html

we can only presume the one chip that doesn't have info on it to be 0.25GB so 8x0.25=2GB

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios...&interface=&memType=GDDR5&memSize=2048&since=

 

[Chomiq]

To the OP:
If you paid with PayPal they should refund the return shipping cost. No need for seller to do this.

Didn't notice that someone dug it up after a month.

 

[kastriot]

Another sucker victim of chinese communism.

 

[Valantar]

Another sucker victim of chinese communism.

Communism? A scam like this is pure-bred capitalism. China is to communism what Ramen noodles are to spaghetti carbonara - a quick glance might make you think they have something in common, but any closer inspection will show that to be false.

More on-topic, OP, did you ever get this flashed?

 

[eidairaman1]

Rule if the price is too good to be true, DO NOT BUY IT

whats interesting is the BIOS version number relates to a Palit 450GTS with DDR3 not GDDR5...

but the ones I pulled should work since it is a 2048MB card

 

[Halflite]

Wow! Thanks for the replies guys - I'd given this up for dead!

@Solidus1983 - If you have a fixed BIOS I could try on this card, I'd be really grateful if you could let me have a copy. Really!

@eidairaman1 et al - thanks for the links and comments, I'll take a look at them over the next couple of days (I don't mean to seem ungrateful, but RL and all that ;-) )

Again, Many Thanks!

 

[Solidus1983]

First things first use nvflash to backup the VBIOS before messing with it. The memory issue is next to deal with all 2GB versions of the GTS 450 I can find are all GDDR3 and not GDDR5, only the 1GB versions have I seen with GDDR5.

The one fixed was a 1GB version

Found a GDDR5 version

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/183637/183637

Try that one it's the right ram type and is the right ram name

 

[MrGenius]

Somebody knows how to edit the VBIOS for the correct amount of VRAM. That somebody isn't me though. But I have heard of it being done. Pretty sure there's a thread here somewhere.

EDIT: Or whatever. Try one the one he found above first.

 

[eidairaman1]

Somebody knows how to edit the VBIOS for the correct amount of VRAM. That somebody isn't me though. But I have heard of it being done. Pretty sure there's a thread here somewhere.

EDIT: Or whatever. Try one the one he found above first.

Hexadecimal modifications

First things first use nvflash to backup the VBIOS before messing with it. The memory issue is next to deal with all 2GB versions of the GTS 450 I can find are all GDDR3 and not GDDR5, only the 1GB versions have I seen with GDDR5.

The one fixed was a 1GB version

Found a GDDR5 version

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/183637/183637

Try that one it's the right ram type and is the right ram name

Dude, I pulled a specific list of 450 GTS with GDDR5 at 2048MB (2GB)

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/rfh-another-fake-chinese-gfx.253896/#post-4039415

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios...&interface=&memType=GDDR5&memSize=2048&since=

Wow! Thanks for the replies guys - I'd given this up for dead!

@Solidus1983 - If you have a fixed BIOS I could try on this card, I'd be really grateful if you could let me have a copy. Really!

@eidairaman1 et al - thanks for the links and comments, I'll take a look at them over the next couple of days (I don't mean to seem ungrateful, but RL and all that ;-) )

Again, Many Thanks!

No worries, just be careful

 

[timta2]

Another sucker victim of chinese communism.

The US is full of capitalist scammers, as are many capitalist countries.

 

[eidairaman1]

The US is full of capitalist scammers, as are many capitalist countries.

Communism= government controlling when you blink.

 

[Valantar]

Communism= government controlling when you blink.

I think you're thinking of totalitarianism or authoritarianism (strict governmental control over personal freedoms is actually not intrinsic to communism even if it has been common in real-world countries claiming to be communist (which, by the way, none have actually been)), but let's not get into an extremely off-topic discussion of various ideologies, eh?

 

[eidairaman1]

I think you're thinking of totalitarianism or authoritarianism (strict governmental control over personal freedoms is actually not intrinsic to communism even if it has been common in real-world countries claiming to be communist (which, by the way, none have actually been)), but let's not get into an extremely off-topic discussion of various ideologies, eh?

Actually it is intrinsic, communism is a dictatorship in every way shape and form, look at north korea, china, iran.

Tell timta2 that then

 

[Valantar]

Actually it is intrinsic, communism is a dictatorship in every way shape and form, look at north korea, china, iran.

Tell timta2 that then

Iran? Has Iran ever laid any claim to being communist? I seriously think you need to look these things up. As for North Korea and China, those (as well as the Soviet Union) were some of the countries I was alluding to when I said there have been no actual communist countries in the world - they claim(ed) to be so, but have never followed the ideology beyond paying it occasional lip service.

But seriously, can we drop this? This is not at all related to the topic of the thread.

 

[R-T-B]

I've learned very quickly the members here haven't the slightest clue what the word "communist" means beyond being a boogeyman.

That being said, lets put the politics away.

 

[Bones]

I've learned very quickly the members here haven't the slightest clue what the word "communist" means beyond being a boogeyman.

That being said, lets put the politics away.

Too bad Communists exist, the boogeyman doesn't.
With that said I believe we should get back on topic here.

I do hope the OP can get it right and working.

 

[Halflite]

Hello All!

Again, apologies for the delay in getting back to this, but it hasn't gone too well...

I've tried the BIOSes you guys were good enough to post on here, and unfortunately no joy - many thanks for the links though, it really is appreciated.

I've also tried several other 450 BIOSes, and the problem is the same with all of them - graphical corruption from boot. I was beginning to suspect my programmer (I've certainly had a few issues with the software), however I can blow the original BIOS back to the board, and it then works 'fine'.

I suspect the only real way forward with this is modifying the original BIOS to change reported memory, which I still can't figure out. However, I'm concerned that the board may be claiming to have other functionality that in reality it doesn't, leading to more problems further down the line, so I haven't put too much effort into this.

In fact, I've given up and bought a proper 750TI from ebay (for a couple more pounds than this PoS cost, natch), and that'll do me for now. I still have the board, and should I make any further progress, I'll report back here, but I suggest we don't hold our collective breath...

Finally, +1 Diplomacy to all for keeping the political discussions rational!! ;-)

Again, many thanks, and my apologies for not being able to report better news :-(

Stay Groovy! ;-)