I recently got Chat GPT to build me a PC spec for a new PC – Risky, I know. Whilst Chat GPT specified an MSI version of this card, whilst I was putting the parts list together on Amazon, I noticed this Showkings GPU version of the card for significantly cheaper than other versions. I figured, it’s the same card, what the heck, lets give it a go.

I should have worried when the box arrived and it looked as low-rent as it did. This thing did not shout quality, far from it. The Showkings box appeared brand-free on the outside stating only “graphics card” and “Built for games” – to be honest it looked similar to that I would have received an OEM Win-TV PCI Card from, maybe 20 years ago. Still, it was cheaper than elsewhere, and I got a £10 voucher off the price, I was winning…

I opened the box to be greeted with this;

An oversized box with a graphics card thrown in a bag without any care and obvious evidence that the card has been rattling around without any additional packaging to keep it secure in transit. This was an omen.

The quality, or lack thereof, of the stickers on the fans was evident, and (Im’ wishin now I’d taken more, or any, pictures of the actual device) the quality of the pipework attaching the rad to the GPU was questionable. Nevertheless, I was determined to see the Chat GPT build through.

I installed this along with the other components listed on my “Chat GPT Build” blog post, and the computer posted. I installed windows, and was fairly happy – Although I’d installed whilst looking at the display on Half of my 1440p Ultra widescreen monitor, whilst sharing my original PC with the other half of the monitor, so the display settings straight out of Windows 11 setup were horrendous – that was a user issue though, and easily rectified, I’d just grab the video card drivers from Nvidea and get the display resolution sorted.

As soon as I installed the GPU Drivers, the fans inside the card hit 100%, and stayed there. As soon as the machine hit Windows, the fans were at 100%, constantly.

I downloaded GeForce Experience and this showed all the information for the card, except the Fan Speed. I downloaded MSI Afterburner – this had zero effect on setting the fan speed. I tried reseating the GPU on the motherboard with no change, and I tried no less than 5 older display drivers for this card, with none being any more successful than any other. The only way to avoid the fans spinning to 100% was to remove the Nvidea driver altogether and run it with Windows Default Display Driver, which was not a solution, except to the headache the card was giving me.

I looked up Showkings GPU on google, only to find other people questioning the company, and lots of people suggesting that these are previous Mining GPU cards, re-housed, clocked and sold primarily on Amazon/ebay and temu/aliexpress style websites – rather than reputable PC component stockists such as Scan, Overclockers, Ebuyer etc. Something in itself should start ringing alarm bells…!

Needless to say, this wasn’t going to work for me and I started the RMA within Amazon. Which turned out to be fairly pain free (so far) I’m still waiting for the money to be returned to the finance company so I don’t have to pay the £180 this card demanded.

For this kind of money, I was expecting more. A better packaging experience, quieter function and some (ANY) support from the manufacturer. But there doesn’t seem to be any.

I used CineBench to run a test on the card and it scored: 3321.693376

By comparison the XFX 308 MERC Radeon 6650 XT that I replaced it with for £208 on Ebuyer scored 5228.847440

Based on my experience, I would 100% NOT Recommend Showkings GPU‘s and would suggest you shop around for a reputable retailer/manufacturer of Graphics Card.