In October, the United States expanded its ban on chip exports to China. In addition to requiring Nvidia to ban the sale of A100 chips to China, even the high-end gaming graphics card "GeForce RTX 4090" was included in the scope of control.
In this regard, Huida also admitted after the release of its third quarter 2023 financial report that it expected sales in the Chinese market to decline significantly in the fourth quarter.
It is rumored that a low-end version of “RTX 4090” will be launched
However, according to " wccftech " reports, in order to face this ban, Huida is developing a graphics card specifically for the Chinese market, which fully complies with the US ban standards, and will be named "RTX 4090 D", where "D" stands for "Dragon" , it just so happens that next year is the Year of the Dragon.
Although the specific specifications of this new graphics card have not yet been fully disclosed, it is conceivable that its performance (including game performance and AI functions) will be lower than the RTX 4090.
This may mean that the RTX 4090 D will have lower overall processing performance, thermal design power (TDP) and fewer SM (Streaming Multiprocessors) units.
It is understood that this new graphics card will be provided by Huida's AIC partners, and its outer packaging will be added with a new "D" label. The price of the RTX 4090 D that everyone is most concerned about will be similar to the non-"D" model RTX 4090 sold in the Chinese market, with a suggested retail price of approximately US$1,599.
RTX 4090 surges to $8,000
Due to the reduction in supply due to the ban, the RTX 4090 is currently out of stock across China, which has led to a sharp increase in the price of the RTX 4090, with prices as high as approximately US$8,000. In the United States, the price exceeded US$2,000 before the recent Black Friday sale. 25% higher than recommended selling price.
According to previous reports from Dongzhong, in order to make the graphics card meet the requirements of AI use, China is said to be setting up special factories across China to receive a large number of GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards and modify them, so that there is also a demand for RTX 4090 in the Chinese market. Very strong.
The assembled "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 AI graphics card" will undergo rigorous testing in the laboratory, running Furmark, 3DMark and a large number of AI applications to ensure that they meet the needs of AI customers. After passing the test, they will be handed over to China AI In the hands of enterprises, it remains to be seen how long Chinese AI companies can rely on these "RTX 4090-modified AI graphics cards"
Further reading: China’s artillery solves chip ban: Thousands of Nvidia RTX 4090 assembled into “AI graphics card”
