Leaked footage shows Chinese workshops dismantling brand-new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards by the thousands and rebuilding them as dual-slot blower cards for AI servers. The video offers a look inside facilities where technicians desolder the flagship GPU's GB202 silicon and GDDR7 memory chips, then transplant them into a dual-slot blower design tailored for server use. The modified cards are tested, validated, repackaged and shipped to clients that are likely data centers or AI labs, where they are expected to anchor high-density racks and large AI compute clusters.
The operations are spread across many factories in China, and the source article describes the conversion process as massive in scale, with probably thousands of GeForce RTX 5090 cards repurposed every day. Production lines handle shipments of new cards spanning Nvidia's custom partner models as well as the Founders Edition. Middlemen in grey-market supply chains are said to be constantly hunting for RTX 5090 stock to keep these operations running.
The RTX 5090 is not officially available in China, according to the source article, which frames the grey-market conversion work as the answer to why the card shows up there. Nvidia has reportedly halted production of the GeForce RTX 5090 and is in all likelihood redirecting the silicon to higher-margin professional GPUs such as the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell. The combination of redirected supply and aggressive grey-market recycling has nearly wiped out RTX 5090 stock from U.S. retailers.
For U.S. buyers, the effect is visible in pricing. Custom GeForce RTX 5090 cards now start at $8,500, according to the source article. It notes that a workaround has emerged to sidestep the shortage and inflated prices: prebuilt gaming systems, which sometimes cost less than a standalone RTX 5090 while providing a fully assembled system backed by a manufacturer's warranty. The article observes that buying an entire gaming system would have seemed cheaper than a single high-end graphics card only months ago, yet in the current market prebuilts often offer the better value.
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