RTX 4090 D with 48GB VRAM Spotted in China, Built for AI

Modified Nvidia RTX 4090 and 4080 GPUs with Double VRAM Appear in China

A GeForce RTX 4090 D with 48 GB and an RTX 4080 Super with 32 GB of VRAM have surfaced on the Chinese market, likely modified for AI training.

Rumors are swirling in the tech world as a user discovered modified Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs with double the standard VRAM on a Chinese cloud computing platform. The user, "bdsqlsz," shared their findings on X (formerly Twitter) after renting computing power from AutoDL, a Chinese provider specializing in AI tasks.

While no performance data or images of the cards were shared, screenshots of log files reveal the existence of a GeForce RTX 4090 D with 48 GB of VRAM and a GeForce RTX 4080 Super with 32 GB. These figures represent a doubling of the typical memory capacity for these models.

It's believed that the modifications involve a custom PCB design allowing for twice the number of memory chips, as simply installing larger modules is not feasible with the current largest available GDDR6X chips being 2 GB. The memory modules are likely installed on both sides of the PCB, similar to Nvidia's workstation GPUs.

Interestingly, the RTX 4090 D is a slightly toned-down version of the standard RTX 4090 specifically for the Chinese market due to US trade restrictions. It features fewer shader units (14,592 compared to 16,384) and lacks overclocking capabilities. However, this hasn't stopped illegal imports and modifications from circumventing these restrictions.

The modified RTX 4090 D is reportedly available in China for $2,500.

Key Takeaways:

Modified RTX 4090 D and 4080 Super GPUs with double VRAM have appeared in China.
These cards are likely intended for AI training purposes, where large amounts of VRAM are beneficial.
Modifications involve a custom PCB design to accommodate twice the memory chips.
This appears to be the first instance of such modifications on Nvidia's Ada Lovelace architecture.