A recent Reuters investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting Chinese universities and research institutes may have circumvented US sanctions on high-performance NVIDIA GPUs by purchasing servers containing the restricted chips. The sanctions tightened on November 17, 2023, prohibit the export of advanced NVIDIA GPUs like the consumer GeForce RTX 4090 to China. Despite these restrictions, Reuters found that at least ten China-based organizations acquired servers equipped with the sanctioned NVIDIA GPUs between November 20, 2023, and February 28, 2024. These servers were purchased from major vendors such as Dell, Gigabyte, and Supermicro, raising concerns about potential sanctions evasion. When contacted by Reuters, the companies provided varying responses.

Dell stated that it had not observed any instances of servers with restricted chips being shipped to China and expressed willingness to terminate relationships with resellers found to be violating export control regulations. Gigabyte, on the other hand, stated that it adheres to Taiwanese laws and international regulations. Notably, the sale and purchase of the sanctioned GPUs are not illegal in China. This raises the possibility that the restricted NVIDIA chips may have already been present in the country before the sanctions took effect on November 17, 2023. The findings highlight the challenges in enforcing export controls on advanced technologies, particularly in the realm of high-performance computing hardware. As tensions between the US and China continue to rise, the potential for further tightening of export restrictions on cutting-edge technologies remains a possibility.

Outpost: Infinity Siege developers recommend underclocking Intel's current and previous flagship desktop processors, the Core i9-14900K and i9-13900K, to prevent the game from crashing. This recommendation goes out to those with a GeForce RTX 4090 paired with either a Core i9-13900K or i9-14900K, we're fairly sure that the recommendation even extends to those with i9-14900KS and i9-13900KS. Team Ranger, the developers of the game, just released their second patch in just a week following the game's launch. In the patch notes, they ask users to use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU), to lower the P-core clock speeds down to at least 5.00 GHz (maximum boost). This development closely follows a February 2024 report which says that game stability issues of high-end "Raptor Lake" processors are linked to power limit unlocks.

Over 500 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and barely a week goes by without new blockbuster games and incredible indie releases integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects to deliver the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX gamers.

This week, we're highlighting the release of DLSS 3-accelerated release of Outpost: Infinity Siege, and the launch of Alone In The Dark and Lightyear Frontier, which both feature DLSS 2. This batch of great new RTX releases follows the release of Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, which boasted day-one support for NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA DLAA, and NVIDIA Reflex. Additionally, Diablo IV's ray tracing update is out now—learn more about each new announcement below.

Over 500 RTX games and applications have revolutionized how people game and create with ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS and AI-powered technologies. Today, we're unveiling even more RTX games that will deliver the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX gamers. At GDC 2024, we're announcing several new exciting integrations of cutting-edge RTX tech! In Black Myth: Wukong and NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, we're working with our partners to incorporate Full Ray Tracing and NVIDIA DLSS 3.5.

In Portal with RTX, our free, fully ray-traced reimaging of Valve's classic game, DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction and RTX IO are now available, further upgrading its technology, graphics and image quality. Diablo IV's ray tracing update arrives March 26th. Star Wars Outlaws will launch with DLSS 3 and ray-traced effects. The First Berserker: Khazan will launch with DLSS 3. And Sengoku Destiny introduced support for DLSS 3 earlier this week.

With the XMG FUSION 15 and CORE 15, XMG unveils its first 15.3-inch laptops in 16:10 format. The two compact devices, which are very similar except for a few details, differ primarily regarding their CPUs: the FUSION 15 is powered by Intel's Core i9-14900HX or i7-14650HX and either an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or 4070, while the CORE 15 combines an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS with an RTX 4060. Apart from that, the gaming laptops, which weigh around 2 kg and are 21.9 mm high, offer a WQXGA display with a brightness of 500 nits and an almost entirely aluminium chassis with a clean and elegant design.

The design language of the XMG FUSION 15 (E24) and the XMG CORE 15 (M24) focuses on understated elegance. The laptops share an identical, black anodised and torsion-resistant aluminium chassis. At 342.5 x 245 x 21.9 mm, these two 15.3-inch devices are very compact, while a reduced weight of just 2.0 kg (XMG CORE 15) or 2.1 kg (XMG FUSION 15) offers good portability.

An MSI "Ruan Mei" special edition GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X model has been teased by hongxing2020 on social media—it is not clear whether this is an intentional leak, given the formal office setting photographed in the background. Seemingly finalized retail packaging, heavily updated shroud plus backplate designs, and bundled poster and mousepad merchandise are emblazoned with a 5-star rated Honkai: Star Rail character. As noted by VideoCardz, the web link displayed on MSI's accompanying poster would indicate that the special green and gold special SUPRIM X model is destined for the Chinese PC hardware market—where miHoYo's Honkai games franchise is super popular.

The MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X "Ruan Mei" special edition's packaging does not make a distinction between the onboard GPU being a US sanction-compliant NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D variant, or the original + uncompromised AD102-300-A1. Perhaps it is safe to assume that a first quarter 2024 launch model will sport ever so slightly downgraded internals—MSI has already prepared their standard silver range-topping GeForce RTX 4090 D SUPRIM X model for the region. A small batch of Ruan Mei limited editions could arrive at a later date, once the the standard card has cleared the way.

Eurocom, a leading manufacturer of high-performance laptops, has announced the release of two new models: the Raptor X17 and Nightsky RX415 with up to 96 GB of DDR5 memory. Both laptops are powered by the latest 14th generation Intel Core i7 14900HX CPU and now support 96 GB of DDR5 memory (2x 48 GB). The Raptor X17 is equipped with a 17.3-inch 240 Hz display, while the Nightsky RX415 features a 15.6-inch UHD OLED display. These laptops are designed to deliver exceptional performance and speed for gaming, content creation, and other demanding applications.

"While 96 GB of DDR5 memory may be considered overkill for certain use cases, it can deliver tangible benefits for professionals engaged in video editing, rendering, multitasking, virtualization, and other memory-intensive workloads. We are excited to be able to offer this option to our customers in the Nightsky RX415 and Raptor X17 high performance laptops as we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible inside a laptop form factor." Mark Bialic, Eurocom President.

Cooler Master's research and design team seems to be up to all sorts of shenanigans lately—company representatives at CES 2024 had the joyful experience of hyping up a curiosity/prototype bearing the moniker "Project VGA Cooler." It certainly is a tough sell to explain to punters how an aftermarket part can usurp the performance offered by a manufacturer's standard fitting of triple-fan arrays on already pricey custom high-end GeForce RTX 40xx cards. The plucky Project VGA Cooler was showcased in white or dark silver forms, accompanied by twin Mobius 120 mm fans. The spec sheet states that these utilize special loop dynamic bearings, although we are not certain whether the special Mobius fans are customized for this project specifically.

TPU staff witnessed an ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 TUF graphics card getting the refit treatment—its original triple-fan array was removed, and the experimental aftermarket part was attached to the TUF's remaining heatsink and shroud. Cooler Master's demonstration proceeded smoothly, but this publication questions whether these prototype GPU cooling units are truly prepared for a universal fit across a wide variety of expensive current generation GeForce RTX models, or Radeon RX equivalents. Cooler Master's design team likely has to be careful in choosing specific or popular GPU models, once "Project VGA Cooler" exits the conceptual phase of development and approaches final retail form.

Alienware is entering new arenas at CES 2024 with the debut of notebooks, peripherals and monitors that were inspired by our community and developed to appeal to all gamers. Whether you play to compete, play to get immersed in the game or play to socialize, Alienware can outfit your gaming needs. From the beginning, Alienware has offered high-performance hardware and software to the most demanding gamers. And here's what I can tell you: our focus on the enthusiast gamer hasn't changed. At the same time, the gaming landscape has evolved and is becoming more diverse than ever.

That's why we're eager to introduce products designed for wider audiences, from students who play dorm room sessions with friends, to working professionals who wind down the evening with a relaxing indie title, and pro athletes who game for a living. While these products reach new audiences, their DNA remains distinctly Alien, meaning they deliver the latest innovations in technology, performance and design. Meet Alienware's latest product portfolio:

• Three new gaming notebooks debut - the redesigned Alienware m16 R2, the ultra-premium x16 R2, and our performance juggernaut, the m18 R2.
• We've doubled our QD-OLED family by adding the Alienware AW3225QF and AW2725DF - two first of their kind QD-OLED monitors.
• Built in collaboration with 100+ esports athletes, our new Alienware Pro Wireless Keyboard and Pro Wireless Mouse mark our breakthrough into the pro gaming peripherals space.

At CES 2024, Razer has updated its Blade laptop family spanning across various sizes, and even got a chance to present a "world's first" feature in a gaming product. The star of the Razer booth is the company's flagship Blade 16 laptop, which now supports 240 Hz refresh rate in its 16-inch OLED display format. Being the first to get there, Razer offers a high refresh rate at 2560 x 1600 QHD+ resolution. In addition to 0.2 ms response time and DCI-P3 100% color gamut, the display had VESA ClearMR 11000 and DisplayHDR True Black 500 certifications. At the center of the laptop is the 14th Gen Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, paired with up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU with 175 Watt TGP. Pricing starts at $2999 for lower-end configurations and is available now.

Lenovo's new gaming ecosystem debuted at CES 2024, with Microsoft Windows 11-based PCs, peripherals, software, and services that deliver on power, thermals, graphics, AI-powered advantages, and the freedom to build the ultimate system to game. The new PC portfolio includes the following new 9th generation Lenovo Legion 16-inch gaming laptops and towers:

• The Lenovo Legion 7i (16", 9), Lenovo Legion 5i (16", 9), and Lenovo Legion Slim 5 (16", 9) are for gamers who need a laptop that can handle their favorite games as well as their STEM apps.
• The Lenovo Legion 9i (16", 9) is for those who will settle for nothing less than the best in their gaming and content creation pursuits.
• The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (16", 9) and Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (16", 9) are for gamers who need the ultimate in FPS, style, and screen.
• Legion Tower 7i and Legion Tower 5i are for those who need the extra horsepower of a top-tier gaming tower PC.
  Also new this year are the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9, Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I, Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9, and Lenovo LOQ 15AHP9 laptops and Lenovo LOQ Tower 17IRR9 for gamers beginning their journey up the leaderboards. New accessories, such as the Lenovo Legion M410 Wireless RGB Gaming Mouse and Legion K510 Pro Mini Keyboard, along with a new Lenovo AvatarMaster PC software app round out the upgraded ecosystem.

At the core of this new gaming lineup is the family of Lenovo's proprietary hardware AI chips—called LA AI chips-and the advantages they bring to both Lenovo Legion and Lenovo LOQ gaming laptops. First introduced last CES, this year's LA AI chips are mightier than ever, enabling Lenovo Legion and Lenovo LOQ laptops to achieve even higher FPS, increased power efficiency, and more. And with a selection of gaming laptops, towers, monitors, accessories and even the handheld Lenovo Legion Go announced last IFA, the new Lenovo gaming ecosystem lets gamers choose the exact setup they need to achieve gaming greatness and reach their "impossible".

Acer unleashes a series of powerhouse gaming laptops, headlined by the refreshed models of the Predator Helios 18 and Predator Helios 16. Acer also announced the new Predator Helios Neo 18 gaming laptop and major updates to the Predator Helios Neo 16, all outfitted with the latest Intel Core 14th gen processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs with DLSS 3.5 technology and NVIDIA Advanced Optimus. NVIDIA RTX Laptop GPUs are packed with specialized AI Tensor Cores enabling unmatched AI performance and accelerations in creative apps, ultra-efficient productivity, blistering fast gaming, and more. The Predator laptops feature Microsoft's Copilot in Windows 11 and a dedicated Copilot key for quick access to AI-powered task assistance. They also come with one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, giving gamers access to hundreds of high-quality PC games.

Gamers seeking a competitive edge will be thrilled with the Predator Helios 18 and Predator Helios 16 laptops as they come with options for captivating Mini LED panels, MagKey 3.0 swappable mechanical switch for shorter key travel and response time, and lightning-fast network speeds with Wi-Fi 7 compatibility.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the 2024 Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G16, the latest in an illustrious lineup of supremely powerful thin-and-light gaming laptops. These machines feature a new CNC-machined aluminium chassis, a customizable Slash Lighting array, and a brand-new Platinum White colorway, while cutting-edge AI accelerated silicon from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA stand ready to push gamers and creators to new heights of performance. Both the Zephyrus G14 and G16 come equipped with the ROG Nebula Display, stunningly color-accurate OLED panels that are also G-SYNC capable for incredible gaming experiences. Ultra-efficient cooling technology, including tri-fan technology, liquid metal, and vapor chambers on select models enable the Zephyrus G14 and G16 to breathe easily despite their ultra-portable designs.

Brand-new chassis design
The 2024 Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G16 have been completely redesigned inside and out. Both machines boast all-new and all-aluminium CNC-machined chassis for the perfect mix of weight reduction, structural rigidity, and increased chassis space. This allows for an edge-to-edge keyboard design, as well as the inclusion of larger and louder speakers with superior bass response down to 100 Hz. The speakers are 25% larger than the previous generation, with a 47% volume increase for more immersive audio experiences than ever before. The Zephyrus G14 and G16 also come with larger individual keycaps and a larger touchpad, for superior typing, precision scrolling, and fluid gaming. Both the 2024 Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G16 ship with three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, providing access to a library of hundreds of great games.

GIGABYTE has unveiled its new AORUS 17X and AORUS 16X 2024 laptops at CES 2024, showing off the new WINDFORCE Infinity cooling system and giving them a refresh with Intel 14th Gen CPUs and NVIDIA RTX 40 series GPUs. Both models come with up to Intel Core i9-14900HX 24-core CPU, GIGABYTE's AI Nexus technology, and the new WINDFORCE Infinity cooling system, which has all new fans, 0 db cooling, and 3D VortX technology, which uses four air outlets and two inlets combined with five sets of heatpipes.

The larger AORUS 17X laptop can be equipped with up to 17.3-inch QHD 240 Hz display, and in addition to the Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, it can be also equipped with up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU. The smaller AORUS 16X laptop gets up to 16-inch WQXGA 165 Hz display with slim bezels, but sticks with up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. Both also support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, Copilot hotkey button, and a hefty 99Wh maximum battery capacity.

NVIDIA this October was barred by the US Federal Trade Commission from selling the GeForce RTX 4090 in the Chinese domestic market. The company scampered to create a China-specific variant of the RTX 4090 that would comply with the FTC's limits on the AI inference performance, while mostly being as fast as the regular RTX 4090 at gaming. The resulting product is the RTX 4090D. This card has significantly lower AI inference performance, probably due to a lower Tensor core count as VideoCardz reports, or a firmware based performance limiter similar to LHR (lite hashrate) GPUs during the peak of the crypto-scalping GPU shortage. This card goes on sale today. To prevent modding of this GPU back to a regular RTX 4090, it probably comes with a different device ID, and other barriers that prevent video BIOS from regular RTX 4090 from being transplanted over; and overclocking of the GPU is disabled beyond the maximum boost frequency advertised. The TGP has been lowered to 425 W, too.

NVIDIA is preparing to launch the GeForce RTX 4090 D, or "Dragon" edition, designed explicitly for China. Circumventing the US export rules of GPUs that could potentially be used for AI acceleration, the GeForce RTX 4090 D is reportedly cutting back on overclocking as a feature. According to BenchLife, the AD102-250 GPU used in the RTX 4090 D will be a stranger to overclocking, as the card will not support it, possibly being disabled by firmware and/or physically in the die. The information from @Zed__Wang suggests that the Dragon version will be running at 2280 MHz base frequency, higher than the 2235 MHz of AD102-300 found in the regular RTX 4090, and 2520 MHz boost, matching the regular version.

Interestingly, the RTX 4090 D for China will also feature a slightly lower Total Graphics Power (TGP) of 425 Watts, down from the 450 Watts of the regular model. With memory configuration appearing to be the same, this new China-specific model will most likely perform within a few percent of the original design. Higher base frequency probably indicates a lack of a few CUDA cores to comply with the US export regulation policy and serve the Chinese GPU market. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D is scheduled for rollout in January 2024 in China, which is just a few weeks away.

NVIDIA is giving final touches to the new GeForce RTX 4090 D, a graphics card SKU specific to the Chinese market, aimed squarely at gamers. The card fills the void for gamers shopping in the enthusiast segment, as all inventory of the regular RTX 4090 has been bought up by Chinese companies to accelerate AI, and controls are in place that prevent NVIDIA from selling the card in its current form in the Chinese market.

What sets this SKU apart is that it is designed to comply with U.S. export controls of GPUs that have the dual use as a high compute-density AI accelerator. In other words, its performance with AI will be artificially limited. This is being done by lowering the card's TPP (total processing performance), which could mean that it ends up slower than the regular RTX 4090. This is somewhat similar in concept to LHR (lite hash rate) GPUs NVIDIA designed for gamers as their regular GPUs were being heaped up by crypto currency miners, although LHR wasn't created due to government policy, but in response to market demand. The RTX 4090 D is expected to retail for RMB 13,000, which is similar to the baseline price of the RTX 4090.

The recent U.S. government restrictions on AI hardware exports to China have significantly impacted several key semiconductor players, including NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, restricting them from selling high-performance AI chips to Chinese land. This ban has notably affected NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 gaming GPUs, pushing them out of mainland China due to their high computational capabilities. In anticipation of these restrictions, NVIDIA reportedly moved a substantial inventory of its AD102 GPUs and GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards to China, which we reported earlier. This could have contributed to the global RTX 4090 shortage, driving the prices of these cards up to 2000 USD. In an interesting turn of events, insiders from the Chinese Baidu forums have disclosed that specialized factories across China are repurposing these GPUs, which arrived before the ban, into AI solutions.

This transformation involves disassembling the gaming GPUs, removing the cooling systems and extracting the AD102 GPU and GDDR6X memory from the main PCBs. These components are then re-soldered onto a domestically manufactured "reference" PCB, better suited for AI applications, and equipped with dual-slot blower-style coolers designed for server environments. The third-party coolers that these GPUs come with are 3-4 slots in size, whereas the blower-style cooler is only two slots wide, and many of them can be placed in parallel in an AI server. After rigorous testing, these reconfigured RTX 4090 AI solutions are supplied to Chinese companies running AI workloads. This adaptation process has resulted in an influx of RTX 4090 coolers and bare PCBs into the Chinese reseller market at markedly low prices, given that the primary GPU and memory components have been removed.Below, you can see the dismantling of AIB GPUs before getting turned into blower-style AI server-friendly graphics cards.

NVIDIA is reportedly rushing shipments of GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs to China in anticipation of expected export restrictions. We have already reported that NVIDIA might be canceling 5 billion US Dollars worth of orders. The US government will require an export license for shipping RTX 4090s to China, effectively restricting sales to the country. NVIDIA's add-in-board (AIB) partners are reportedly working at full capacity to produce as many RTX 4090 products for the Chinese market as possible before the potential restriction on November 17. While it remains unclear whether the export restrictions will ultimately be implemented, the anticipation of such measures has prompted NVIDIA and its partners to accelerate their production.

The Tweet that feeds this information is coming from Zed Wang, a well-known hardware leaker with historically accurate insights into NVIDIA's operations, who claims that "NVIDIA has been shipping tons of AD102 for AICs this week to manufacture as much RTX 4090 as possible before the original restriction date of RTX 4090 in China. It is still unclear whether the restriction will become true or not. But all AICs are at their full power in producing RTX 4090, regardless of that."

EK, the premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to announce the availability of high-end, fully liquid-cooled gaming PCs for the European market. These EK-Fluid Gaming PCs are a work of art, hand-made by the master of custom loop liquid cooling. Aside from being visual masterpieces, their integrated custom cooling enables the user to exploit the maximum of what the latest hardware can offer. By liquid cooling both the CPU and GPU, the PC can easily hit and maintain its highest possible boost frequencies without breaking a sweat.

Plug And Play
Fluid Gaming PCs are the ultimate plug-and-play solution for competitive gamers and enthusiasts to whom gaming isn't just a hobby but a lifestyle. But these PCs are not just geared towards gamers, as there are practically no limits to their utilization. They pack the latest and greatest hardware, including the recently launched Intel Core i9 14th generation CPUs. Besides gaming, they can handle streaming, video editing, and 3D modeling, or can just be a visual showpiece in your office or home. With this new availability in Europe, EK's European customers are just a click away from their next-level custom water-cooled gaming experience with ZERO hassle. The starting EK Fluid Gaming PC lineup for Europe consists of three carefully selected PCs inspired by our Shop The Loop series that include: Zen Lotus, Side Task, and Digital Reef.

MSI, a trailblazing brand in gaming hardware and innovation, continuously strives to fulfill gamers' dreams. Today, we take immense pride in unveiling AI-powered gaming desktops featuring the 14th generation Intel processor. This marks the perfect fusion of intelligence and performance, promising gamers an invigorating gaming experience.

Next-Generation AI Gaming Desktops
In our commitment to delivering unparalleled gaming experiences, MSI proudly introduces the MEG Trident X2 14th and MPG Infinite X2 14th, equipped with the latest 14th generation Intel processors. These desktops incorporate cutting-edge Frozr AI Cooling technology, delivering exceptional performance through intelligent cooling. Frozr AI Cooling employs advanced algorithms to dynamically monitor component temperatures, ensuring rapid responses to temperature changes and suppressing temperature spikes. Gamers can now enjoy maximum performance without the need for manual adjustments.

When GALAX began its operations in China in 2003, the company broke into the market and established itself as one of the best GPU AIBs out there. Now, the company is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special-edition graphics card to mark its two-decade run. We have previously reported that the company is planning to show more of the special-edition card; however, all we managed to get was a teaser of the GPU. Today, thanks to the X/Twitter user CornerJack we manage to see the new GPU in person and its uniquely positioned 12VHPWR power connector.

In the images below, we see that GALAX decided to work around the problem of bad cable management by introducing a more stealthy approach. The 16-pin 12VHPWR connector is now hidden inside of a GPU in an interesting place. The connector is placed in line with the GPU, next to the PCIe connector, to prevent cable bending, which is proven infamously dangerous. In regards to the special-edition features, we expect the card to be a great performer and certainly a star of the show of any PC build due to its white aesthetics.

In order to celebrate its 20th anniversary, GALAX has teased a special edition GeForce RTX 40 series graphics card. Although there are no specific details, due to the size and thickness of the teased cooler, it is most likely that this will be a special edition GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

As detailed by Videocardz.com, the new graphics card will include a three- to four-slot thick cooler with two fans on the front side and an open area on the front, which could be an opening for a third fan located at the back of the card. GALAX already has an extensive lineup of RTX 4090 graphics cards, a total of fourteen, as well as over 80 different models of RTX 40 series graphics cards. The new GeForce RTX 40 series graphics card should be announced tomorrow, and GALAX has already unveiled a new series of high-end PCIe Gen 5 SSDs as a part of the 20th anniversary celebration. Hopefully, these won't be limited to the Chinese market, and we'll see a worldwide release.

ASUS has been teasing their first-ever ROG-aligned liquid metal thermal compound-cooled solution since the start of summer, in the form of a truly flagship Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB graphics card. Their late May reveal boasted about the importance of bleeding edge technology and a continuation of their Matrix product line's "special" legacy. A third quarter 2023 launch window was outlined—today they have narrowed that timeline down to a specific date—September 19. The ASUS ROG North American branch posted on its socials: "The wait is almost over!😎 Count down to the official launch of our flagship graphics card - the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090. 🔥" A live stream has been organized to coincide with the headliner's retail debut (Sept 19th, 9:00 AM | New York and Sept 19th, 9:00 PM | Taipei).

Exact pricing is likely to be announced during launch day proceedings, but industry experts are setting expectations at $2000+. The fancy Matrix trimmings and highly selective binning process of Ada Lovelace silicon will come at a steep premium. The ASUS marketing talk from May boasted: "No reason to beat around the bush: the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 has the highest boost clocks of any RTX 4090 on the planet. Featuring a custom-engineered coldplate that captures heat not only from the RTX 4090 GPU die, but also the VRMs and memory chips, this card has even more headroom to push its clocks higher, for longer, allowing us to bin only the absolute best dies for this showpiece graphics card. In addition, the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 features an ROG first: liquid metal thermal compound on a graphics card."

The Republic of Gamers (ROG) department at ASUS started to tease its lineup of official Evangelion tie-in products in late July, with a ROG Strix customized NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 card attracting some attention thanks to its very prominent red and black aesthetic. The marketing spiel revealed that: "the EVA Editions of the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 come equipped with a myriad of performance-enhancing ASUS features, such as Axial-tech fans with reverse rotation and 0 dB technology, an exclusive vapor chamber design, top-shelf power delivery and a sleek metal exoskeleton for maximized rigidity. The expertly engineered fan shroud and right-hand side of the card now sport an EVA-02 color theme, and Asuka art takes over the backplate."

The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC EVA-02 Edition was shown off at last month's Gamescom trade fair in Germany, but PC hardware enthusiasts in China will be getting first dibs on retail units. As reported by ITHome and VideoCardz, units can be pre-ordered via JD.com, with shipments starting tomorrow (September 5). The special edition livery and pack of themed accessories will set you back 17,999 RMB (~$2475) in the region. ASUS ROG has not revealed pricing for Western territories.