A Hong Kong-based PC technology and reviews site has discovered that a sanctions-compliant Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090D graphics card can be overclocked to “achieve the performance level of the RTX 4090 FE.” HKEPC got one of Asus’ best graphics cards in the labs for testing and ran a multitude of synthetic and gaming benchmarks, pitting the RTX 4090D against a handful of its more familiar GeForce siblings, including the RTX 4090. It also had no trouble overclocking the US sanctions-compliant graphics card using GPU Tweak III , which then boosted performance to the level of a standard RTX 4090.
The RTX 4090D is a cut-down version of the top-end consumer graphics card from Nvidia, designed to limbo under specific performance metrics laid out by the US government. These sanctions are intended to deny China access to advanced chips that could be used to enhance its military prowess. The difference between the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4090D has been well documented in our previous articles, as have the reasons behind the existence of the latter.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | RTX 4090D | RTX 4090 |
| SMs | 114 | 128 |
| CUDA Cores | 14,592 | 16,384 |
| Tensor Cores | 456 | 512 |
| RT Cores | 114 | 128 |
| Boost Clock | 2,520MHz | 2,520MHz |
| Base Clock | 2,280MHz | 2,235MHz |
| VRAM Speed | 21Gbps | 21Gbps |
| VRAM Capacity | 24GB GDDR6X | 24GB GDDR6X |
| VRAM Bus Width | 384-bit | 384-bit |
| VRAM Bandwidth | 1,008GB/s | 1,008GB/s |
| L2 Cache | 72MB | 72MB |
| ROPs | 176 | 176 |
| TMUs | 456 | 512 |
| TDP | 425W | 450W |
To make a sanctions-compliant version of the GeForce RTX 4090, some key GPU tech specs were cut. For example, the AD102 die common to the RTX 4090 and 4090D has fewer CUDA cores and RT cores, slower clocks, and a TDP cap on the sanctions-compliant model for the Chinese market. Nvidia’s shrewd snips edged the RTX 4090D under a TPP (Total Processing Power) figure set at 4,800, while the RTX 4090 has a TPP of around 5,286 for FP8 work running on the Tensor cores.
We have seen reviews of the RTX 4090D previously, suggesting that the Chinese market-targeted card is only about 5% slower in gaming , and 10% slower in AI workloads (Galax model) than the full-fat RTX 4090.
However, HKEPC seems to have managed to do better than its China rivals using the Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090D. The first thing it noticed was that this card was “exactly the same” as the sanctioned RTX 4090 version, except for the cut-down AD102-250 GPU core being used, with the great cooling and advanced features remaining intact.
An extensive range of synthetic and gaming tests were completed with the RTX 4090D at stock settings, making up most of the HKEPC article. The Asus performed as expected here, nestling between the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, but usually residing closer to the flagship.
Overclocking the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090D
HKEPC observed that the ROG Strix RTX 4090D version “has lifted the restriction of not being able to overclock, and the TGP power consumption can be liberated.” Apologies for that machine translation, but it also specifically mentions that Asus GPU Tweak III could lift the power limit to a maximum of 600W. Its best overclocking tweaks ended up being: GPU Clock +200 MHz, Mem Clock +187 MHz, but it consumed up to 558.4W with these settings.
The outcome was that HKEPC successfully boosted the Speedway benchmark scores from 9,894 to 10,818, representing a 9.3% uplift. Testing in 3DMark Port Royale delivered a similar story, with an uplift of 8.7%.
In its conclusion, HKEPC told readers that while Nvidia doesn’t allow AIBs to sell OC cards, it doesn’t restrict users from DIY overclocking shenanigans. “After a high degree of overclocking adjustment, the ROG Strix RTX 4090 D actually has a way to achieve the performance level of the RTX 4090 FE,” it asserted. Last but not least, the Hong Kongers reckon that the low-hype RTX 4090D is a pretty good deal but worry that when the RTX 50-series arrives, China residents won’t even be able to buy the ’80.’
