NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs are now seeing their VRAMs bumped up by Chinese companies to sustain AI workloads, especially for cloud computing providers.
Chinese CSPs Are Renting Out NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090D 48 GB For As Little As $0.03/Hr, Available for Purchase As Well Along With 32 GB RTX 4080 SUPER GPUs
Well, GPU VRAM modding is a domain we all are aware of, and it's no surprise that this has been done countless times in the past to achieve extra performance gains, that too at a "relatively" lesser financial cost.
The last weird encounter we witnessed was with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, which saw its VRAM being doubled by modders (22 GB) to get sufficient performance for the AI markets. It looks like the "modding fever" has now spread onto the latest GeForce RTX 40 "Ada Lovelace" GPUs.
A Chinese AI expert has disclosed that people in the region are selling Team Green's GeForce RTX 4090D and RTX 4080 SUPER GPUs with modded VRAMs. The GeForce 4090D is reportedly available with 48 GB GDDR6X memory, while the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is modded to house 32 GB memory. The source says that such GPUs are popular amongst cloud computing providers, and they are renting out computing power to address the demand for it in the market amid the AI hype. Interestingly, the modded GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is available for $0.03 for a single hour, which is a shocker.
It's true, and the speed is fine.
I checked it out.
It seems that are 32g4080 and 48g4090 in China at the end of June.
48g 4090 price is about 2500$.😂
At least it's cheaper than the A6000. https://t.co/K4koNUUMTm— 青龍聖者 (@bdsqlsz) August 9, 2024
China always has mysterious technology, such as 32G 4080s, $0.03/single gpu hour.😎 pic.twitter.com/XPXeWixJhq
— 青龍聖者 (@bdsqlsz) August 9, 2024
If you are looking to acquire GPUs, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090D 48 GB is reportedly available for $2,500 in the domestic market, which is still decent considering the alternatives available such as the RTX 6000 "Ada" which also packs 48 GB memory but costs around $7000 US.
Since such operations are running in backdoors, we haven't seen images of the modded GPUs surface up; hence, we don't have an exact idea of how they ended up in the first place, but our wild guess would be that the modders were able to design a PCB to accommodate 24 GDDR6X modules, in the case of the GeForce RTX 4090D.
48g 4090d with torch 2.4 fp8. https://t.co/BeTZ3x53CB pic.twitter.com/J1ju7hSp1L
— 青龍聖者 (@bdsqlsz) August 9, 2024
Previously, entire Chinese factories were spotted dismantling NVIDIA's latest gaming GPUs and retrofitting them with new PCBs and coolers to serve large-scale AI operations within China. The move was done after the US government announced its plans to curb exports of AI accelerators from NVIDIA to China which later extended to consumer-tier parts such as the RTX 4090 which is why the company had to launch a specialized RTX 4090D variant to serve the market.
It would be really interesting to see the beefy design, given that having such large VRAMs on a GPU is an achievement of its own, not to mention the cooling mechanism these modders may have implemented for such a powerhouse.
Fortunately, people outside of China can't avail of these "renting" facilities, given that accessing the applications requires a local number and identification. China always manages to impress us, whether it is through their modding skills or plenty of other stuff, which we won't mention for now.
News Source: @bdsqlsz
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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