- China might have blocked NVIDIA’s RTX 5090D v2, a downgraded GPU designed to comply with US export controls.
- Reports indicate Beijing, not Washington, is stopping the card from entering or being processed in the country.
- The chip features reduced memory, lower bandwidth, and restricted AI performance compared to the standard global model.
China may have unexpectedly blocked the launch of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090D v2, a graphics card that NVIDIA specifically developed for the Chinese market to comply with increasingly strict US export regulations.
According to reports from HKEPC and several market sources, motherboard makers and logistics businesses have received letters from Chinese customs suggesting that this GPU will not be authorized for import or commercial processing in the nation. In other words, the blockage would originate in Beijing rather than Washington.
The GeForce RTX 5090 D v2 is not the normal RTX 5090. It is the second edition of an RTX 5090, with fewer features than the global model. These modifications attempt to reduce its appeal for AI-related jobs. This GPU uses the same GB202 chip with 21,760 CUDA cores, but the memory is reduced from 32 GB to 24 GB of GDDR7.
Furthermore, the memory interface is lowered from 512 to 384 bits, reducing bandwidth from 1,792 to 1,344 GB/s. Furthermore, AI performance is limited to 2,375 AI TOPS, whereas the normal RTX 5090 has 3,352 AI TOPS.
The latest reports suggest that China has changed its mind. It’s no longer just about accepting a small number of US chips to comply with US legislation but it’s also about minimizing its technological reliance on NVIDIA. According to Reuters, despite the fact that the US had authorized sales of the NVIDIA H200 chip to a dozen Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com, no deliveries had been made due to Beijing’s resistance and pressure to prioritize Huawei-produced chips.
China is not simply responding to US restrictions; it is also using its own regulatory machinery to force a shift toward domestic suppliers such as Huawei, Cambricon, and other local accelerator makers.
Reuters reports that Beijing is concerned that imports may undermine its efforts to produce homegrown chips. Furthermore, new Chinese supply chain security requirements have led to increasing scrutiny of the country’s reliance on foreign technology.
The GeForce RTX 5090 D v2 is less powerful for AI, but it remains an excellent choice for gaming, content creation, and some local workloads. If China likewise prohibits this model, NVIDIA will be left with no flagship GeForce cards that are permitted in China. The GPU would also be difficult to sell in other nations because it was built exclusively for China.
In conclusion, no other country would want to purchase a GeForce RTX 5090 with less RAM, a less powerful interface, and limited AI capabilities. For wealthy Chinese gamers, the GeForce RTX 5080 will be the most powerful GPU available in the country. Of course, they can always use the gray market to get uncapped RTX 5090s.
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Sajjad Hussain is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tech4Gamers.com. Apart from the Tech and Gaming scene, Sajjad is a Seasonal banker who has delivered multi-million dollar projects as an IT Project Manager and works as a freelancer to provide professional services to corporate giants and emerging startups in the IT space.
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