Daily Trivia : China Factory DIY 4090 AI GPU card

Daily Trivia : China Factory DIY 4090 AI GPU card

Ever wonder why the GPU price is soaring high right now? A significant factor is the recent US export restrictions on AI hardware, leading to a remarkable transformation of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs in China. These GPUs, highly favored by consumers for gaming, are now being extensively repurposed for AI applications due to the impact of these bans.

In response to this situation, Chinese factories have started remodeling these GPUs for AI use, moving away from their original gaming purpose. This process include removing the original cooling systems and other parts, and integrating the GPUs into custom-designed server oriented OEM PCB.

As a result, this has led to a surplus of RTX 4090 coolers and bare PCBs, stripped of their valuable chipsets and RAM, in the Chinese market. These components, now missing the core GPU parts, are being sold at significantly reduced prices, often less than 50 USD.