Nvidia, the most valuable chipmaker globally, is introducing a less powerful version of its top-of-the-line graphics card for the Chinese video gaming market.
This move comes in response to heightened restrictions imposed by the US government on the company’s marketing activities in China, according to Bloomberg.
CEO Jensen Huang has expressed the company’s commitment to producing versions of its leading products tailored for China, ensuring compliance with regulations set by the Biden administration on exports to the country.
The US government, aiming to impede the progress of China’s artificial intelligence capabilities, has restricted access to specialised chips in the Chinese market.
Nvidia stated that it collaborated extensively with the US government during the development of this graphics product, set to launch in January.
In comparison with the model available elsewhere, the China variant, named RTX 4090 D, will feature fewer processing sub-units beneficial for accelerating artificial intelligence workloads.
US officials, driven by national security concerns, are particularly focused on Nvidia’s AI accelerators, with the H100 currently leading this range. This chip, rooted in graphics card technology, has fueled the proliferation of AI-capable hardware in large data centers.
In response to tightened US export rules in 2022 and further performance threshold reductions in October, Nvidia initially introduced less capable chip versions for China. The company’s leadership announced a commitment to revising its offerings for the Chinese market, the largest chip market globally, to align with the new regulatory framework.
GeForce RTX 4090 D Spec
According to Nvidia China, the RTX 4090 D variant exhibits significant changes, with a reduced CUDA core count from 16,384 to 14,592 and a Tensor core count decrease from 512 to 456.
Memory specifications remain the same, featuring 24GB of GDDR6X memory with a clock speed of 21 Gbps and a 384-bit interface. But, it has higher base clock speed at 2.28GHz compared to 4090 2.23GHz.
Notably, the default Thermal Design Power (TDP) has been reduced to 425W, indicating a 25W decrease compared to the original model. The RTX 4090 D is priced at CNY12,999 (~RM8,462).
