Creating a 48GB NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU - Brother Zhang's Repair Shop (ft. )
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Date: 2026-01-23
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Comments and reviews: 20
jeromelanteri321
They are close to industrial level of test and repair Quality system. I did worked in Schneider at production in test and Quality to repair mobo for industrial robots. Exactly the same thing, but with some other step with a test-board (one by device to test also the connections and the voltage at all test points... a bit deeper than these process). All the data and componant reports linked with a database of componant to increase the quality reports to analyse.
All the distribution of test boards and componants to swap was automatised with huge robot machinery to deserve the request. They test by a sowftware to inject test, but industry add a level up to test hardware connections too with sensors connected on special crucial test points. We also used a better material with high quality digital zoom and high level osciloscope and FFT meter.
I think there is not much repair shop because of the price of the time to work is too high in USA or such countries out of Asia.
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They are close to industrial level of test and repair Quality system. I did worked in Schneider at production in test and Quality to repair mobo for industrial robots. Exactly the same thing, but with some other step with a test-board (one by device to test also the connections and the voltage at all test points... a bit deeper than these process). All the data and componant reports linked with a database of componant to increase the quality reports to analyse.
All the distribution of test boards and componants to swap was automatised with huge robot machinery to deserve the request. They test by a sowftware to inject test, but industry add a level up to test hardware connections too with sensors connected on special crucial test points. We also used a better material with high quality digital zoom and high level osciloscope and FFT meter.
I think there is not much repair shop because of the price of the time to work is too high in USA or such countries out of Asia.
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SlyNation
That was pretty interesting! I am def no repair expert, but seems pretty crazy to me that the success is 99%. One of those little solder balls missing a gap, or an old piece of solder not cleaned off could cause the entire thing to short out or just not work. Then you would have to go through looking for which component is causing errors and do it all over again. Finicky, precise work, that he taught himself how to do. Pretty insane. Removing, cleaning, sticking the solder balls and aligning them via a template, I can see how all that would work. I just don't get how you remount it! All those connection points so close together! in my mind once you flip a prepared GPU/mem module, and then align it, using heat would just make all those solder balls pull together, shorting out each connection rather than staying individual points. Its crazy that it works so well. I have a few GPU's chillin in my closet I should send out, haha! Good video dudes. :D
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That was pretty interesting! I am def no repair expert, but seems pretty crazy to me that the success is 99%. One of those little solder balls missing a gap, or an old piece of solder not cleaned off could cause the entire thing to short out or just not work. Then you would have to go through looking for which component is causing errors and do it all over again. Finicky, precise work, that he taught himself how to do. Pretty insane. Removing, cleaning, sticking the solder balls and aligning them via a template, I can see how all that would work. I just don't get how you remount it! All those connection points so close together! in my mind once you flip a prepared GPU/mem module, and then align it, using heat would just make all those solder balls pull together, shorting out each connection rather than staying individual points. Its crazy that it works so well. I have a few GPU's chillin in my closet I should send out, haha! Good video dudes. :D
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then_rz
I don't see any $5-10k fancy BGA machines in there. I see a lot of higher quality infrared bottom heaters and a lot of manual hot air top elements that are manually placed. That is just incredible. They can keep costs lower by using the skill of the owner and his techs for the same end result. I can tell you from experience, even alloying the lead free solder on the bottom of the GPU with leaded solder to enable safer and more effective removal of the lead free solder can go terribly wrong if not done correctly. With thousands of pads and few no-connects, any mistake at any point can render a 4090 GPU chip done forever. Mr. Zhang's specialization into just GPUs makes a ton of business sense, as he is able to generate enough work to support the niche and only have to tool his shop for this singular process. Also Steve can get by in Mandarin Xiexie, Steve.
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I don't see any $5-10k fancy BGA machines in there. I see a lot of higher quality infrared bottom heaters and a lot of manual hot air top elements that are manually placed. That is just incredible. They can keep costs lower by using the skill of the owner and his techs for the same end result. I can tell you from experience, even alloying the lead free solder on the bottom of the GPU with leaded solder to enable safer and more effective removal of the lead free solder can go terribly wrong if not done correctly. With thousands of pads and few no-connects, any mistake at any point can render a 4090 GPU chip done forever. Mr. Zhang's specialization into just GPUs makes a ton of business sense, as he is able to generate enough work to support the niche and only have to tool his shop for this singular process. Also Steve can get by in Mandarin Xiexie, Steve.
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gamersnexus
Do they sell to western customers or just domestic china
Do they ever do other things like making the cards liquid cooled, or put multiple GPUs on a single PCB like the old 9800GT2s or do they just do VRAM expansion
Seeing a dual 20xx or 30xx card with double the VRAM sounds like an amazing way to recycle older hardware. I'd imagine a hard no for the liquid cooling upgrade since that requires fabrication rather than reworking existing parts.
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Do they sell to western customers or just domestic china
Do they ever do other things like making the cards liquid cooled, or put multiple GPUs on a single PCB like the old 9800GT2s or do they just do VRAM expansion
Seeing a dual 20xx or 30xx card with double the VRAM sounds like an amazing way to recycle older hardware. I'd imagine a hard no for the liquid cooling upgrade since that requires fabrication rather than reworking existing parts.
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beogeek
This is right down my ally! Man these guys are something else, placing bga balls using a stencil without a jig that's art! Then re-flowing the memory modules only by eye is just... I'm speechless! The Chinese are really in a different league compared to the rest of the so called developed world! This is one of if not the best video I've seen on GN! Good work guys, bloody fantastic!
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This is right down my ally! Man these guys are something else, placing bga balls using a stencil without a jig that's art! Then re-flowing the memory modules only by eye is just... I'm speechless! The Chinese are really in a different league compared to the rest of the so called developed world! This is one of if not the best video I've seen on GN! Good work guys, bloody fantastic!
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Noodle1g
Haha I would hope it is not javascript they used to check the gpu... But its so simple to repair a pcd problem is that the equipment is pretty pricy and also requires people to follow simple instructions but in this day of age so many people can't... Well done on brother Zhang's some high quality repairs and amazing technique too
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Haha I would hope it is not javascript they used to check the gpu... But its so simple to repair a pcd problem is that the equipment is pretty pricy and also requires people to follow simple instructions but in this day of age so many people can't... Well done on brother Zhang's some high quality repairs and amazing technique too
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Yun-pq8ch
The US gaming community and other regions don't seem to align well. They have an overbearing desire to be the best at everything, even resorting to importing talent from other countries to represent them. I would much rather immerse myself in the gaming and entertainment scenes of Korea and China for the rest of my life.
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The US gaming community and other regions don't seem to align well. They have an overbearing desire to be the best at everything, even resorting to importing talent from other countries to represent them. I would much rather immerse myself in the gaming and entertainment scenes of Korea and China for the rest of my life.
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sandorclegane3658
Awesome video. One minor complaint. You said this video was made because kick starter like stretch goals were reached, you then immediately launch into the sponsor, saying this video is brought to you buy insert sponsor... It was your fans that made this video possible with their money... Come on Steve
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Awesome video. One minor complaint. You said this video was made because kick starter like stretch goals were reached, you then immediately launch into the sponsor, saying this video is brought to you buy insert sponsor... It was your fans that made this video possible with their money... Come on Steve
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itech
Brother Zhang brought the online GPU gambling activity to popularity. People would buy broken GPUs and send them to Brother Zhang for repair. After the repair, they would use them themselves or sell them to make money. It was very interesting, and in the end, 90% of people would lose.
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Brother Zhang brought the online GPU gambling activity to popularity. People would buy broken GPUs and send them to Brother Zhang for repair. After the repair, they would use them themselves or sell them to make money. It was very interesting, and in the end, 90% of people would lose.
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nachtelfje2440
To me as an occupational health professional, the working conditions look pretty decent. Fume extractors, working environment where women also want to work. Ok the chairs don't look like they're up to European standards for example, but i'm still pretty impressed!
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To me as an occupational health professional, the working conditions look pretty decent. Fume extractors, working environment where women also want to work. Ok the chairs don't look like they're up to European standards for example, but i'm still pretty impressed!
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KingJerbear
This really just shows you how absolutely out of touch anyone who thinks North America is on the forefront of technological advancement actually is. Incredible stuff from Brother Zhang, it's like a Mom & Pop but executing at the most meticulous level. What a guy
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This really just shows you how absolutely out of touch anyone who thinks North America is on the forefront of technological advancement actually is. Incredible stuff from Brother Zhang, it's like a Mom & Pop but executing at the most meticulous level. What a guy
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gamersnexus
Besides helping PC Enthusiasts save money by repairing their GPU's this also helps lessen e-waste, altho its an exceptionally small margin, a save is a save no matter what it is.
Brother Zhang should have his skills passed down hahaha
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Besides helping PC Enthusiasts save money by repairing their GPU's this also helps lessen e-waste, altho its an exceptionally small margin, a save is a save no matter what it is.
Brother Zhang should have his skills passed down hahaha
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podtrh
Whole video is great and Brother Zhang found nice window in market!
But at 25:24 technician use alcohol for clean grease and then continue work without gloves. I don't get it, is it only for video or does they do it all time like this
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Whole video is great and Brother Zhang found nice window in market!
But at 25:24 technician use alcohol for clean grease and then continue work without gloves. I don't get it, is it only for video or does they do it all time like this
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gamersnexus
Watching this i was thinking if the main difficulty to do something similar in the US/EU really are labor costs and not say IP infringements, doing something like this surely goes against manufacturer desires and DMCA
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Watching this i was thinking if the main difficulty to do something similar in the US/EU really are labor costs and not say IP infringements, doing something like this surely goes against manufacturer desires and DMCA
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K24_Rkn
Crazy you can add more vram to a gpu.
I wonder if it’d be worth it to do it like a older gpu like a 1080ti
Also what is the price to do it I’d love to upgrade my gpu esp now that I can’t afford a newer gpu.
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Crazy you can add more vram to a gpu.
I wonder if it’d be worth it to do it like a older gpu like a 1080ti
Also what is the price to do it I’d love to upgrade my gpu esp now that I can’t afford a newer gpu.
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CatofManyFaces
It's amazing how making cards at the factory involves super static and dust free rooms and everything, and then you get to this repair shop and it's just casual clothes and bare hands.
The contrast is wild!
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It's amazing how making cards at the factory involves super static and dust free rooms and everything, and then you get to this repair shop and it's just casual clothes and bare hands.
The contrast is wild!
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mierenmans
China is such a interesting country. On the one hand they still burn a lot of fossil fuel and aren't great for the environment. And then the people do such cool things like recycling 100% of gpu's in various ways
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China is such a interesting country. On the one hand they still burn a lot of fossil fuel and aren't great for the environment. And then the people do such cool things like recycling 100% of gpu's in various ways
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729usbow
this is a serious violation of CR laws, and even showing it to the public can get this kind of repair shop in trouble, NVIDIA chips are restricted by the Chinese government as of recently, so this is bad.
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this is a serious violation of CR laws, and even showing it to the public can get this kind of repair shop in trouble, NVIDIA chips are restricted by the Chinese government as of recently, so this is bad.
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antiapatic
I would like so much to see Chinese Semis industry going on parity with western one! Competition will drive innovation and good prices! Western semis companies are nothing but a bunch of greedy corpos!!
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I would like so much to see Chinese Semis industry going on parity with western one! Competition will drive innovation and good prices! Western semis companies are nothing but a bunch of greedy corpos!!
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discodan2265
Low key jazz bg music had me clickin my fingers! Question: Would double the vram on a 4090 make a difference performance wise gaming Or just for number crunching exercises
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Low key jazz bg music had me clickin my fingers! Question: Would double the vram on a 4090 make a difference performance wise gaming Or just for number crunching exercises
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