Nvidia Unveils RTX 4090D GPU for the Chinese Market
In response to U.S. government restrictions on exporting advanced goods and services to China, Nvidia has introduced the RTX 4090D—a slightly less powerful version of its high-performance RTX 4090 GPU—specifically designed for the Chinese market. The move is aimed at countering Chinese efforts to dominate artificial intelligence technology.
Features of the RTX 4090D
The recently revealed RTX 4090D has 14,592 CUDA processing cores and a power draw of 425W. It is just 5% less powerful than the original RTX 4090 while still adhering to the United States’ limit of 4,800 TOPS (trillion operations per second) for hardware sold in China. The new GPUs do not support overclocking.
U.S. Restrictions and Compliance
The release of the RTX 4090D follows the addition of the flagship RTX 4090 gaming GPU to the U.S. list of banned exports to China in October. Nvidia claims that the GeForce RTX 4090D fully complies with U.S. government export controls and that it worked closely with U.S. officials during development.
Strict U.S. Export Controls
The U.S. has been tightening restrictions on exporting advanced AI accelerators and high-performance chips to China. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned chipmakers about attempts to circumvent these sanctions, emphasizing that national security takes precedence over short-term revenue.
Nvidia’s Compliance Efforts
Nvidia’s launch of the RTX 4090D demonstrates its ongoing efforts to comply with U.S. sanctions while serving its Chinese customers. The GPU is designed to avoid crossing red lines on supporting advanced AI development in China, but it still offers strong performance for gaming and AI training.
Chinese Businesses Prepare for Sanctions
Chinese tech giants like Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba have purchased up to $5 billion worth of Nvidia hardware in anticipation of U.S. sanctions. However, the U.S. will likely continue monitoring and restricting Nvidia products that could enable AI acceleration.
Hot Take: Navigating Export Restrictions in the Tech Industry
The clash between the U.S. and China over advanced technology exports continues to impact companies like Nvidia. While Nvidia’s RTX 4090D caters to the Chinese market within U.S. restrictions, it remains to be seen how this delicate dance around emerging technologies will unfold in the future.
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