From Gaming to AI: RTX 4090s Repurposed for Chinese Supercomputers

Last month, the U.S. government intensified its export controls on cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chips. With the revision of these regulations, not only the computational cards used in data centers but also consumer-grade GeForce RTX 4090 gaming graphics cards have been affected, significantly restricting chip design firms like Nvidia from selling high-performance chips to China.

Recently, users on the Chinese forum Tieba disclosed that some Chinese factories had stockpiled a substantial quantity of GeForce RTX 4090 gaming graphics cards prior to the enactment of the ban. They have since dismantled these cards, extracting their chips and memory to repurpose them into turbo cards designed for AI computing. Images shared by these users reveal the newly acquired graphics cards to be the Palit RTX 4090 GameRock OmniBlack model.

Moreover, these netizens also shared screenshots of a video showing the disassembly of these graphics cards in the factories, but interestingly, the brand of the graphics card in the screenshot is Asus, suggesting that the factory had previously acquired high-end graphics cards from multiple brands. This is corroborated by posts on the Chinese second-hand platform, where users have noticed the sale of various brands and models of RTX 4090 cards, stripped of their core components and memory, and still in their original packaging. The modified turbo cards are designed with a dual slot for easy integration into large servers and bear the ‘GeForce RTX’ logo.