- Nvidia has launched RTX 4090 D in China, fully compliant with US sanctions.
- RTX 4090 D has 10.9% fewer CUDA cores, and its TGP of 425W is 5.8% lower as compared to the previously released but now banned RTX 4090.
- The price is the same as earlier. It costs CNY 12,999, which converts to $1830.
RTX 4090 is the best graphics card from Nvidia and also the most performant. However, it was so powerful that it was part of banned GPUs in China (and several other countries) due to recently imposed sanctions by the Biden-led US government. To counter just that Nvidia has launched an exclusive RTX 4090 D in China. Here is what is different about this new GPU, including a specification comparison to the earlier banned model.
NVIDIA Launches GeForce RTX 4090 D for China
To catch you up, the US had imposed sanctions on many countries to limit their innovation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) essentially. When Nvidia’s best graphics card got banned in China, we first heard news of an ‘RTX 4090 D‘ coming to the country.
Despite the ban, it was found that thousands of RTX 4090s were received in various China-based factories for disassembly & repurposing into fresh GPUs with new coolers.
“The GeForce RTX 4090 D has been designed to fully comply with U.S. government export controls. While developing this product, we extensively engaged with the U.S. government,” – NVIDIA Spokesperson told Reuters
On the official China website of Nvidia, the new RTX 4090 D model has replaced the previous model. Many gamers in China will be quite happy about this video card’s existence. With RTX 4090 D on the market, gamers can still purchase the high-end Nvidia GPU, albeit with slightly lower performance.
So, what is different about RTX 4090 D? Starting with performance, an Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that the RTX 4090 D is “5% slower” in gaming and content creation. Not a big deal, I suppose. Of course, RTX 4090 D has the same 3rd Gen RT Cores & 4th Gen Tensor Cores and is built on Ada Lovelace architecture.
Model VRAM Capacity & Bus Width CUDA Core Count Boost Clock Total Graphics Power (TGP) RTX 4090 D 24GB GDDR6X, 384-bit 14592 (-10.9%) 2.52 GHz 425W (–5.8%) RTX 4090 24GB GDDR6X, 384-bit 16384 2.52 GHz 450W
Comparing the RTX 4090 D vs 4090, we can see the CUDA core count has been reduced by 10.9%, and peak GPU power has been reduced by 5.8%. These are quite minor nerfs to an extreme performance graphics card.
Is the ‘RTX 4090 D’ Just as Good?
Essentially, as far as gaming goes, RTX 4090 D is just as capable. The 5% difference in performance should not affect things much. However, the most disappointing thing is no support for GPU overclocking. These high-end cards are usually unlocked for tweaking. But reportedly, RTX 4090 D is locked on the hardware level and cannot be overclocked at all.
Nvidia has also shared performance comparisons against the RTX 3090 Ti. When using DLSS frame generation, RTX 4090 D is up to 3.5X faster in Alan Wake 2 (4K, Ray-Tracing on). This new model is Nvidia’s attempt at releasing their top-end graphics card, which flies right under the radar of US sanctions. It isn’t too powerful to break them, and it cannot be overclocked manually, either.
Nvidia RTX 4090 D: Price & Availability
The RTX 4090 D will cost CNY 12,999, which is equal to $1830. For now, RTX 4090 D has launched in China. Many other countries were included as part of US Sanctions. So, Nvidia could launch this GPU in those countries as well. This price is pretty much the same as the launch price of RTX 4090 in China.
One leaker on X (formerly Twitter) called @I_Leak_VN has shared some details on this. According to exclusive sources, the RTX 4090 D will see 2024 launch in Vietnam too.
What are your thoughts on the RTX 4090 D? Do you think the slight nerf to its specifications is acceptable? Let us know in the comments below.
