On December 28, 2023, the famous American chip manufacturer NVIDIA presented the GeForce RTX 4090 D to the public for the first time. The launch of this product marks an important step in NVIDIA’s product offering, especially considering the export restrictions recently imposed by the United States on China. This new chip is designed to meet the special needs of the Chinese market by combining performance, efficiency and graphics powered by artificial intelligence features.
The creation of the GeForce RTX 4090 D is a direct response to the export restrictions implemented by the Biden administration in October 2022. These regulations have prevented NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence chips, including the first generation RTX 4090, from being sold in China. To ensure legal distribution within the Chinese market, this new model complies with US requirements. During development, NVIDIA collaborated with the U.S. government, demonstrating the company’s commitment to compliance and flexibility for the market.
The GeForce RTX 4090 D is integrated with the AD102-250-A1 edition of the AD102 graphics processor and is built using the 5nm manufacturing process. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and offers incredible hardware ray tracing, variable rate shading, and other features, although certain features have been scaled back to comply with US export regulations. This graphics card configuration includes an impressive 14,592 CUDA cores, 456 Tensor cores, and 114 RT cores. With 24GB of GDDR6X technology combined through a 384-bit interface, the memory array continues to be stable. The graphics processing unit (GPU) operates at a frequency of 2280 MHz, or 2520 MHz when boosted. Another feature of this card is that it is a triple slot card with a total power demand of 425 watts. This indicates significant performance potential.
Considering that NVIDIA holds an overwhelming market share in China’s $7 billion artificial intelligence chip business, the launch of the RTX 4090 D in China is very noteworthy. Compared to the previous RTX 4090, the new chip delivers approximately 5% slower performance in games and creative applications. This is a slight decrease in performance. The price is 12,999 Yuan, which is equivalent to approximately $1,842 in U.S. currency. This price is slightly higher than that of the series offered to Chinese consumers.
To strike a balance between performance and compliance, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 D is a strategic product built specifically for the Chinese market. This debut not only highlights NVIDIA’s resilience to geopolitical challenges, but also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing cutting-edge technologies to its diverse customer base around the world. This launch has the potential to set a new standard for how organizations in the technology sector deal with the complexity of international rules while maintaining a competitive advantage in global markets.
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