Last year, curious-looking custom GeForce RTX 5090D 32 GB card designs emerged from China—at the time, these unofficial designs were based on the region specific GeForce RTX 5090D GPU. Apparently, a mix of AI research firms, DIY enthusiasts, and bootleggers had created blower-style cooling solutions for the best available "Blackwell" hardware. Many months later, a surprisingly comprehensive stack of similarly outfitted GeForce RTX 50-series products have popped up for sale on the Taobao shopping platform. A recent VideoCardz news piece highlights that these offerings are not produced locally by mainstream AIBs; instead unnamed AI companies have reportedly managed to produce blower-style products based on the entire range of "Blackwell" gaming GPUs, including the regionally banned GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB flagship model. An even more nerfed "V2" variant—making do with only 24 GB of GDDR7 VRAM—was released late last summer as a Chinese market exclusive, replacing its older 32 GB sibling.

In early 2026, Taobao listings advertise available stock of all GeForce RTX 5090 variants: standard, D V1, and D V2. Additionally, GeForce RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5060 Ti (all) 16 GB options were included. According to VideoCardz's past weekend article, the cheapest model is listed at 3999 RMB (~$573 USD), with the range-topper (RTX 5090 standard) coming in at a whopping 28,999 RMB (~$4158 USD). Product photos likely show off higher-end cards. Smaller cooling solutions could be present on the less potent GB206 GPU-based model. Further rumors point to involved AI hardware manufacturers readying greater VRAM capacity blower-style custom cards—VideoCardz has picked up on whispers of GeForce RTX 5090 96 GB and RTX 5080 32 GB variants. The former could be enabled by a use of 3 GB GDDR7 memory modules, reflecting work done on NVIDIA's very official RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell range.

Around mid-April, an unusual custom GeForce RTX 5090D design received international news coverage. Under normal circumstances, NVIDIA's board partners have not equipped modern gaming graphics cards with blower-style cooling solutions—typically, this type of treatment is reserved for workstation-grade products (operating at lower TDPs). Team Green's GB202 "Blackwell" GPU is in high demand, due to its AI-crunching prowess—even in slightly nerfed form. Smaller Chinese AI firms and well-heeled hobbyists seemed to be snapping up sanction-adjusted flagship gaming GPUs that are/were coupled with very unofficial blower-type coolers. A month and a half later, Olrak29 has placed a spotlight on a curious batch of bootleg-esque "RTX 5090 32G D7 Turbo" models. As implied by this identifier, these offerings seem to leverage the unpasteurized GeForce RTX 5090 (non-D) GPU.

Photo evidence was scraped from Goofish; a second-hand trading platform owned and operated by Alibaba. As of last month, industry whispers suggested another downgrade of the Chinese market-exclusive GeForce RTX 5090D design—following the complete cutoff of GB202 die shipments into the region. Given current global tensions and export restrictions, NVIDIA and Leadtek's Blackwell PRO W card series faces an uncertain future in China. The Goofish photo uploads indicate an impressive volume of unbranded "RTX 5090 32G D7 Turbo" stock. Stacks of boxes in the background are labelled with "NVIDIA RTX 4090 24G AIB BLOWER" or "NVIDIA RTX 4070 12G AIB BLOWER" stickers—perhaps as diversion tactics. According to VideoCardz and Tom's Hardware, Team Green is not expected to play detective—the North American corporation will probably not provide in-depth comments about elaborate "GPU smuggling" channels.

Nintendo ceased selling products and wound down its operations in Russia last March, soon after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces. Other notable games software and hardware companies also announced their withdrawal at a similar time. Microsoft/Xbox, Sony/PlayStation, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, CD Projekt, Sega, Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive are among a group that discontinued the sale and distribution of games products in Russian territory markets. Lawmakers within Russia have taken a fairly lax stance on the import of consumer and industrial goods - it is legal to do so, even minus a rightsholder's approval. It seems that a couple of Nintendo of Russia employees have taken advantage of loose import regulations in the past few months.

According to a news piece published online by Kommersant (a Russian politics and business newspaper) a relatively new operation registered under the company name "Achivka LLC" is involved in the sale and distribution of Nintendo games in Russian territories. Nintendo Russia CEO Yasha Haddaji is reported to be the leader and majority owner of Achivka LLC, and former corporate events manager Ksenia Kachalova is listed as being a minority stakeholder in the company. The operation's premises appear to match the exact address for Nintendo of Russia. The firm is involved in the importing (from an unknown source) and selling of Nintendo games - the Kommersant article includes photographic evidence - a physical copy of Metroid Prime Remastered is demonstrated as bearing an Achivka stick-on label. The English translation of the company name is Achievement, which is an appropriate word association in the world of high score driven computer games.

Update Apr 18th: Nintendo has confirmed that Yasha Haddazhi, CEO of the Russian Office, remains as a current employee of the international company - but only on a temporary basis. Nintendo continues to distance itself from Achivka LLC and the selling of rebadged products in Russian territories. See below for more details.