Nvidia plans to reduce the memory of its China-specific RTX 5090D to 24GB

Nvidia is still working to navigate the U.S. government's limitations on exporting high-performance chips to China. Despite the ongoing restrictions, Team Green is reluctant to abandon the profitable Chinese market, and the U.S. government appears firm on its trade limitations regarding AI technologies, creating a unique type of competition. 

In the past, Nvidia attempted to comply with regulations by imposing restrictions on the hardware level of its AI functionalities while keeping the overall specifications of the RTX 5090D comparable to those for international versions. Until now, the GPU underpinning the RTX 5090D, the GB202 Blackwell, has maintained the same core count, memory layout, and power specifications as the global version of the RTX 5090. 

A recent report from Korean hardware blogger Harukaze5719 on Twitter/X suggests that this situation is about to change. The new iteration of the RTX 5090D will reportedly feature only 24GB of VRAM, a reduction from the 32GB found in the international model and the current 5090D. This information is said to originate from Manli, a GPU manufacturer partnered with Nvidia. 

By incorporating 24GB of GDDR7 memory, Nvidia's updated D-series graphics card is anticipated to include a 384-bit memory bus, resulting in a 25% decrease in memory bandwidth relative to its predecessor. It remains unclear whether this GPU will also have a reduced CUDA core count. 

Nvidia continues to create GPU SKUs tailored for the Chinese market to circumvent U.S. export restrictions. This strategy may lead to tighter sanctions from the U.S. in the future, as has occurred in previous instances.  Manli is expecting that Nvidia’s new RTX 5090D will be released in July. If it comes with fewer CUDA cores and 24GB of memory, this GPU could resemble a potential RTX 5080 Ti. 

While the RTX 5090 sets a high standard for peak performance, top-tier power isn’t the sole option available. The RTX 5080 offers remarkable next-generation capabilities, incredibly fast ray tracing, and support for DLSS 4—all at a more affordable price point. As always, for the latest news on hardware launches and industry developments, be sure to follow our dedicated hardware coverage.