Counterfeits Galore

Times must be really bad if companies are resorting to counterfeiting their competitor's products. We all know about fake USB flash drives, counterfeit Intel processors and fake motherboards, but it looks like that's not the end of it. According to GeCube, even their graphics cards are being counterfeited!

The graphics cards being counterfeited are specifically their Radeon HD 4000 series. Their NVIDIA graphics cards were, surprisingly, not involved. Perhaps this is a sign of how popular the Radeon HD 4000 series is at the moment.

What's more surprising is that GeCube was the company targeted by these counterfeiters. No offence to GeCube but we would have chosen to counterfeit larger brands like ASUS or MSI. There's just more money to be made that way.

Perhaps they chose GeCube for their inability to seek legal redress. That could explain why all GeCube appeared to do was to send us (and other members of the media) a press release, informing us of the problem and how to "identify genuine GeCube graphics cards". Let's take a look at it...

The GeCube Press Release

Here's the GeCube press release, with the section on identifying the genuine cards highlighted.

GECUBE, the world-leading graphics card maker, stated that it recently received a large number of customer reports of purchasing GECUBE HD4000 series products but finding non-GECUBE produced graphics cards inside the box. These have turned out to be counterfeits and a large number of these have now ended up on the market.

To protect consumers against problems caused by the use of these counterfeit GECUBE graphics cards, GECUBE has now issued a press statement to help customers identify genuine GECUBE graphics cards.

All GECUBE products proceed through professional R&D and manufacturing processing and rigorous quality tests before shipping, including ATI quality certification. Not only are the boxes printed with GECUBE's certification logos but the graphics cards themselves also feature fan stickers printed with the GECUBE certification logo and production serial number (see picture).

Info-Tek/GECUBE emphasized that all GECUBE products undergo the strict quality assurance process of AMD/ATI. The company reserves the right to take all necessary legal action against anyone producing counterfeit HD4000 series products to protect GECUBE's reputation.

The GECUBE brand includes various hardware compatibility testing procedures to ensure that ATI® partner graphics cards meet the highest quality standards during the manufacturing process, and that only when they meet all requirements are they approved and receive certification.

Thus, the "Certified By ATI" mark not only attests to ATI's backing of GECUBE products, it signifies Info-Tek's commitment to quality and consumer rights, as only by purchasing an ATI-certified graphics card can consumers be sure of a product's stability and reliability.

For a full listing of ATI Certified GeCube products, go here - http://ati.amd.com/products/certified/infotek.html

For more information, please visit Gecube - http://www.gecube.com

"GECUBE” is a brand name of Info-Tek Taiwan's Multimedia Products Division. Products under this brand name include graphics cards and other computer peripheral hardware products.

Does It Really Matter?

Well, yes, it actually does. The counterfeiters are doing this for profit. It is highly likely that they would make these graphics cards using the cheapest materials possible. If so, these counterfeit graphics cards may not last as long as the genuine item.

Even if they follow the ATI reference design, you still lose out on the GeCube warranty. Obviously, GeCube will refuse to repair or replace your graphic card if it is not a genuine GeCube graphics card. So, if you are looking to buy a GeCube graphics card, be sure to verify that it's the genuine item.

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