Compared to its speedier predecessor, the 4090D has less CUDA cores.
It has been revealed by The Verge that NVIDIA is planning to create a low-powered version of the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card particularly for the Chinese market in order to comply with the export regulations of the United States. There is already a product page for the RTX 4090D on the Chinese website of the company, and it has a lower number of CUDA cores than its more closely related relative with the same name. With a power demand of 425W rather than 450W, it also has a lower power consumption.
According to Reuters, the majority of the other specifications stay the same between the two versions; however, the reduced number of CUDA cores and the decreased power consumption result in a five percent loss in speed when gaming and utilizing creative programs. NVIDIA continues to assert that the 4090D represents a “quantum leap in performance, efficiency, and artificial intelligence-driven graphics,” that is despite the fact that its performance has decreased.
The reason for this is that the United States has placed export limitations on high-end computer chips that are sold to China and Russia. These restrictions are an attempt to prevent both countries from developing technology that could be utilized in applications such as the production of weapons and surveillance. These regulations were initially proposed in 2022, but they did not become official until this year. As a result, manufacturers such as NVIDIA are currently frantically trying to develop a solution that satisfies the requirements of both Chinese consumers and US regulators.
As a result of the restrictions, the firm was unable to sell the original RTX 4090 and a variety of GPUs connected to artificial intelligence. As a result, we were aware that the company was going to manufacture new chips specifically for the enormous Chinese market. NVIDIA has stated that the new graphics processing unit (GPU) “has been designed to fully comply with US government export controls.” Additionally, the company has stated that it “extensively engaged with the US government” throughout the whole process of developing the chip.
In the month of January, the RTX 4090D will be made available across the entirety of China for a price of 12,999, which is equivalent to approximately $1,836 USD. The aforementioned restrictions have apparently led to the repurposing of manufacturers to focus on artificial intelligence accelerators rather than the prohibited RTX 4090, which should help reduce the need for powerful graphics cards in the country.