In recent months, the US government has been doing everything possible to prevent China from using NVIDIA graphics to train artificial intelligence. The latest restriction from Joe Biden’s government concerns the RTX 4090, a model that can no longer be purchased in China.
NVIDIA doesn’t want to give up on one of the most lucrative markets in the world and it seems like it’s still one step ahead of US government restrictions. The solution to the last restriction is to launch an exclusive version for China called RTX 4090D, a model that, according to different sources, will be launched on December 28, although, at the moment, we do not know that the presentation will be through an event or if it will arrive directly on store shelves.
The reason for banning the sale of the RTX 4090 is its processing power for AI. The new RTX 4090 features a graphics card with the same architecture, Ada Lovelace, which is found throughout the RTX 40 range, a little less powerful.
NVIDIA calls this chart AD102-250 (that of the RTX 4090 is AD102-300) and must include a smaller number of process cores so as not to circumvent the restriction of the Joe Biden government. Different sources suggest that this model has a clock speed of 2,280 MHz, which is 45 MHz higher than the RTX 4090 and that both models share the same maximum clock speed of 2,520 MHz.
These same sources suggest that the memory will be the same, 24 GB GDDR6X with 1 TB of bandwidth and a maximum consumption of 400 W. Regarding the starting price, this new model will have the same as the RTX 4090 when it can be purchased in the country, so it will not drop below $1,800.
Can it be purchased outside of China?
This new chart focuses solely on China so that NVIDIA can continue to sell the most powerful model in the RTX 40 lineup without violating US government guidelines.
Lack of know the first landmarks performance to know what performance it offers compared to the RTX 4090 available in the rest of the world, it is clear that the power will be less, but more than sufficient for private users.
However, for companies working on AI, this may pose a long-term performance problem, one whose solution is as simple as the one they have long been doing to circumvent US restrictions and which is none other than buy this model through other countries.
The RTX 4090D is not the only graphics card that NVIDIA will present in the coming weeks. In addition to this model, during CES to be held in early January in Las Vegas, the company will officially present the new versions of the RTX 4070 and RTX 4080: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, RTX 4070 SUPER and RTX 4080 SUPER.
These new models will hit the market throughout January, although at the moment we do not know what the starting price will be. If you think about renew your old graphicsit is advisable to wait until January to know the features of the new versions and not to buy now a model that becomes obsolete at the first change.
