Nvidias New 4090D

In order to comply with US export controls, Nvidia is launching a graphics card exclusively for the Chinese market. Nvidia presents the RTX 4090D, a GPU that isn't as potent as the flagship RTX 4090 that it sells internationally, on a product page on its Chinese website.

With a maximum of 14,592 CUDA cores compared to 16,384 on the RTX 4090, the RTX 4090D has fewer CUDA cores than its counterpart. Moreover, its power consumption is marginally lower at 425W as opposed to 450W. The Verge received an email from Nvidia representative Benjamin Berraondo stating that the RTX 4090D is still approximately "5% slower in gaming and creating," despite the majority of the other specifications being unchanged between the two chips.

Following the US's tightening of export restrictions on high-end chips shipped to China, Nvidia released the GPU. The new regulations prohibit Nvidia from offering the RTX 4090 for sale in China, in addition to the less potent H800 and A800 AI GPUs that the company created for the Chinese market.

Berraondo stated that the company "extensively engaged with the U.S. government" while developing the chip, and that "the GeForce RTX 4090 D has been designed to fully comply with U.S. government export controls."

Beginning in January, the RTX 4090D will retail for ￥12,999 (~$1,836 USD) in China. The release of this could potentially mitigate China's growing demand for powerful graphics cards, as some Chinese factories have reportedly been breaking apart and repurposing the outlawed RTX 4090 for artificial intelligence.