China-modified Nvidia RTX 5090 with massive 96GB of memory appears on Alibaba for less than $4,000 — 3x more VRAM at 65% the cost of the original
An alleged Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 96GB with 96GB of modded VRAM surfaces on Alibaba for $3888.
A Chinese OEM/ODM company, Shenzhen Suqiao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., has reportedly modified Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card to include 96GB of memory, which is three times more than the original model. The upgraded version is currently being sold on Alibaba for approximately $3,888, a 35% discount compared to the original GeForce RTX 5090 in the United States. This story appears in TH Premium: GPUs (Image credit: Noctua).
Desktop GPU upgrades have been a topic of discussion within Nvidia's Enterprise GPU Roadmap, and GPUs are being tested for DirectStorage with GPU decompression. Over the years, China has produced impressive modified graphics cards, such as the GeForce RTX 5080 32GB, GeForce RTX 4090 48GB, and GeForce RTX 3090 48GB. These modifications were mainly driven by the AI boom, which prompted Chinese factories to innovate and repurpose existing graphics cards for AI workloads.
The GeForce RTX 5090 96GB listing on Alibaba appears more plausible from a technical standpoint, given the company's experience in manufacturing graphics cards, motherboards, and servers for over a decade. However, the Alibaba listing also contains questionable specifications, including GDDR6X memory or 14 Gbps memory speeds. The RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell, featuring 96GB of GDDR7 memory, utilizes the same GB202 silicon as the GeForce RTX 5090 but with more Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) enabled.
While the GeForce RTX 5090 96GB likely uses a custom PCB to install memory chips in clamshell mode, doubling the total memory on the PCB, it raises concerns about its authenticity due to the mention of GDDR6X memory chips. Micron only produced GDDR6X memory chips in 16 Gb (2GB) capacity, making it impossible to reach 96GB in clamshell mode.
Additionally, the listed 14 Gbps memory speed is significantly lower than the 19 Gbps to 24 Gbps range of GDDR6X memory, hinting at potential software-level hacks or modified firmware to enable the increased memory capacity.
If the GeForce RTX 5090 96GB is indeed real, priced at $3,888, it would be an attractive option for AI model users, offering substantial value compared to other similar models currently priced in the $5,900 to $16,000 range.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
