NVIDIA is preparing to launch the China-specific GeForce RTX 5090DD graphics card in August 2025, Benchlife reports. The SKU came to light last week bearing internal codename "PG145-SKU40," and being based on the ASIC "GB202-240-K#-A1." It has the same shader count as the regular RTX 5090, with 21,760 CUDA cores across 170 SM, but with a truncated memory sub-system, with 24 GB of 28 Gbps GDDR7 across a 384-bit wide memory interface, for 1,344 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The card's TGP (total graphics power) remains unchanged from the regular RTX 5090, at 575 W. The idea behind GeForce RTX 5090DD is to comply with U.S. export-controls on GPUs with dual-use as AI accelerators.

When we heard the news that NVIDIA will be halting shipments to Chinese customers for its GeForce RTX 5090D GPU in Q2, there were some speculations that the company is preparing to make a comeback. Leaving out the Chinese market is a tough decision from a business standpoint, but NVIDIA complies with export regulations imposed by the US administration under Donald Trump. However, the company now plans to keep its presence in China with the release of the export-abiding GeForce "RTX 5090DD" GPU. Carrying a GB202-240 die, it will be a cut-down version with reportedly only 14,080 CUDA cores present, paired with 24 GB of GDDR7 memory.

Chinese gamers will notice a significant difference, but so will anyone trying to acquire these GPUs for non-gaming purposes. As the US administration has banned shipments of high-end chips to China to stop them from training military-grade AI, gaming GPUs have been a target of AI firms. Now, a modified GeForce RTX 5090 DD, which not only cuts with raw compute but also firmware, should be sufficient for gaming. Carrying a PG145 SKU 40 board, the new RTX 5090DD GPU will also feature a modified 384-bit bus for its 24 GB of memory, down from the original RTX 5090D's 512-bit bus.

Update 09:45 UTC: According to one of the most accurate NVIDIA leakers, kopite7kimi, the core count for this GPU is supposed to be 21,760 CUDA cores, with 575 W TDP. The leaker did note that there is some surprise, so NVIDIA has definitely changed something big under the hood to comply with export regulations.