As we reported yesterday, Nvidia is reportedly building a version of its GeForce RTX 4090 product — presumably called the GeForce RTX 4090D . This version will comply with the latest U.S. export rules concerning hardware which could be used for artificial intelligence. Today renowned hardware leaker @Zed_Wang revealed that the graphics cards will allegedly be based on the AD102-250 graphics processor. As this is a leak, take the news with some salt.
4090DAD102-250 November 30, 2023
The GeForce RTX 4090D could be on the list of the best graphics cards . While the specs are unknown, we hazard a guess that it will outperform the GeForce RTX 4080, but it will not reach performance levels of the GeForce RTX 4090. The RTX 4090 carries the AD102-300/AD102-301 GPU. The RTX 4090D looks set to be based on a significantly cut-down AD102-250 processor, as the model number demonstrates. At this point it is hard to tell how the GeForce RTX 4090D will stack up against possible GeForce RTX 4080 Ti or GeForce RTX 4080 Super products, but it will likely sit higher.
Nvidia needs to lower the FP8 and FP16 performance of the GeForce RTX 4090 by around 10% in a bid to reduce its AI potential, and decrease its TPP score from 5,286 to lower than 4,800 points . Nvidia cannot just cut down FP8 and FP16 processing because it will likely affect DLSS and legitimate AI applications. So, Nvidia will have to cut chip performance. How exactly Nvidia will cut-down its AD102 to comply with the U.S. export rules is currently unknown.
On the one hand, the company could reduce the number of CUDA cores for GeForce RTX 4090D, which would increase product yields and cut costs. However, GPUs with reduced number of active units tend to be good overclockers, so AI performance of such units could be 'restored.' Nvidia would either have to significantly cut the number of CUDA cores and risk that factory-overclocked GeForce RTX 4080 Super/RTX 4080 Ti would overlap with these parts, or moderately cut down the number of CUDA cores and somehow prohibit heavy overclocking.
For now, it is hard to say not only how Nvidia plans to reduce performance of its AD102 GPU for the GeForce RTX 4090D, but when this product is set to emerge. The earlier the better, of course, but the company will have to test everything before shipping to play it safe with the U.S. government. As for when, Nvidia will likely release the new device well before February 10, Chinese New Year.
