To make up for the lack of powerful chips for artificial intelligence, China is resorting to scavenging. The Financial Times reveals that companies are buying Nvidia graphics cards dedicated to video games and stripping them of their main components, in order to recycle the chips.
This cobbled-together solution provides chips with high computing power, even if they are far less powerful than those specifically dedicated to AI, especially when high-precision computing is required. It's also easy to imagine that this should help Nvidia 's order books stay weightless.
The FT relays comments from industry specialists revealing that demand for PC graphics cards "exploded" in December. A workshop manager in China explained that his workers boned more than 4,000 Nvidia gamer cards last month, four times as many as in November. Customers are mainly state-owned enterprises and small AI players who were caught short by the entry into force of US export controls, having previously overstocked.
Less powerful cards
Nvidia's most powerful gaming graphics card, the GeForce RTX 4090, was one of the most popular models to be reassigned, but its sale in China is now prohibited. Nvidia does, however, sell a slightly less powerful GeForce RTX 4090 D in China.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang with the 4090
The current semiconductor star explained to the FT, however, that these cards are not a panacea for AI, and that their use, even in clusters, is insufficient to achieve good performance on complex models.
Nvidia will soon have a range of three chips for the Chinese market, compatible with US restrictions.
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