Monday, January 22nd 2024
Chinese Vendors are Offering NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080M and RTX 4090M as Desktop GPUs
According to the recent listing on Goofish, discovered by VideoCardz, Chinese companies have begun selling mobile versions of NVIDIA's latest RTX 40-series GPUs as desktop graphics cards. Initially designed for gaming laptops, the GeForce RTX 4080M and RTX 4090M are now being marketed in China as more affordable alternatives to their official desktop counterparts. This development is no surprise to industry observers who recall similar adaptations with the RTX 20 and 30 series. These companies are leveraging the lower cost of mobile GPUs, combined with budget cooling solutions and simpler PCB designs, to offer more affordable desktop GPU options. The mobile GPUs, which are capped at a power consumption of 175 Watts, are being repurposed without official sanction, with NVIDIA seemingly disregarding this practice. Despite the lack of official endorsement, these modified GPUs are finding their way into the market, providing gamers a cost-effective alternative to the more expensive desktop versions.
While not officially supported by NVIDIA, these cards utilize the mobile GPU dies paired with custom cooling solutions and PCBs to work in desktop PCs. According to reports, the RTX 4080M desktop variant offers 7424 CUDA cores and 12 GB GDDR6 memory, representing a 24% reduction in cores and 4 GB less memory versus the desktop RTX 4080. The desktop RTX 4090M is even more cut-down, with 9728 cores and 16 GB memory—a 40% drop in cores and 8 GB less memory than the flagship RTX 4090 desktop card. Pricing falls between $420 and $560 for the RTX 4080M and exceeds that of even the desktop RTX 4090 for the 4090M variant. Performance and longevity still need to be determined for these unofficial cards. While they present a cheaper RTX 40-series option for Chinese gamers, the reduced specifications come with tradeoffs. Still, their availability indicates the ongoing demand for next-gen GPUs and the lengths some vendors go to to meet that demand.
Source:
VideoCardz
While not officially supported by NVIDIA, these cards utilize the mobile GPU dies paired with custom cooling solutions and PCBs to work in desktop PCs. According to reports, the RTX 4080M desktop variant offers 7424 CUDA cores and 12 GB GDDR6 memory, representing a 24% reduction in cores and 4 GB less memory versus the desktop RTX 4080. The desktop RTX 4090M is even more cut-down, with 9728 cores and 16 GB memory—a 40% drop in cores and 8 GB less memory than the flagship RTX 4090 desktop card. Pricing falls between $420 and $560 for the RTX 4080M and exceeds that of even the desktop RTX 4090 for the 4090M variant. Performance and longevity still need to be determined for these unofficial cards. While they present a cheaper RTX 40-series option for Chinese gamers, the reduced specifications come with tradeoffs. Still, their availability indicates the ongoing demand for next-gen GPUs and the lengths some vendors go to to meet that demand.
41 Comments on Chinese Vendors are Offering NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080M and RTX 4090M as Desktop GPUs
To this day, I wont touch anything with customs drivers. Too much work.
Further datapoint - look at all of the fingerpointing with the 12 pin power connector with the 40 series of Nvidia cards.
An RTX 2060 12gb is about $240 on Aliexpress, the m variant is $156.
I paid MSRP for an RTX 3060 12gb ($340); the RTX 3060m 12gb is available on Aliexpress for $238.
For a LOT of people, the cost is a major driver.
For me, I always do research on the warranty and support of all brands. Hardware is getting too expensive to set yourself up for a headache with poor support or problems along the way.
I never advise purchasing used hardware for those on a tight budget. It's consistently a safer choice to opt for something one tier lower than to take a gamble with luck.
These cards come with warranties - if you actually looked at the website (or opened the box they come in), you would know this. All of my Aliexpress purchases (RTX 2060 Super, RX 5700xt, & RX 580 16gb) came with a 2 year warranty.
That is why companies like Soyo, Mllse, Se Ji Shi, Elsa, Szsjkj, Kinology, and Jieshou make and sell what they do - there are markets for this stuff, regardless of your feelings about it.
Are you planning to utilize this guarantee by sending it to China, covering shipping costs equal to the product's price, and also paying taxes equivalent to the product price upon return?
That puts a $200 video card out of reach for most people. This is why the Polaris cards are still selling like gangbusters, and the GT 700 series cards are still being sold.
AFA the warranty, I doubt I will have to.The only video card I had die under warranty since the 1980's was an Nvidia in my 1,1 Mac Pro. (That series of cards is why Apple stopped doing business with Nvidia.) The others that have died were 6+ years old, and long out of warranty.
Of course, I don't do crazy overclocks that shorten the lifespan of the PCB. The PCBs on these are all new (the RX 5700xt has a white PCB, for instance), and they are not heavily driven.
For the most part, electronics either die immediately, or they last 5+ years, if not longer - I have 15+ year old PCs that can still fire up.
I added an image showing some stats from nvidia settings. Or check out my blog with further details dvkwong.com/ai/AI-LLM-Hardware/