Chinese companies are repurposing GeForce RTX 4090s into AI GPUs

Chinese language firms are creating makeshift AI graphics playing cards by modifying Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 inventory to have blower-style coolers. The US ban on exporting AI know-how to China is forcing Chinese language retailers to get inventive to proceed assembly market demand for AI merchandise.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 is probably the most highly effective gaming graphics card, however it’s not recognized for its AI performance, though it may be used for AI workloads in a pinch. Determined occasions name for determined measures, so the AI chip-starved Chinese language market has turned to the high-end Nvidia gaming GPU to satisfy demand.

Tech leaker I_Leak_VN shared a number of pictures of those makeshift AI graphics playing cards from the Xianyu app on Twitter. These merchandise are created by dismantling present RTX 4090 playing cards to retrieve the GPU and GDDR6X chips.

As AI server farms have a tendency to incorporate quite a few graphics playing cards stacked subsequent to one another, the usual four-slot PCIe gaming card isn’t appropriate. So, the Chinese language factories modify them to a ‘blower-style’ design with a smaller cooler to scale back the footprint down to 2 slots. In response to I_Leak_VN, retailers have been profiting from the AI ban to inflate costs by double.

For those who’re not in China, you’ll be able to have your choose of the bunch, though costs of RTX 4090s have inflated considerably due to this ban. Nonetheless, different GPUs are principally unaffected, with some nice offers on the best graphics cards if you happen to’re searching for an improve.