The short version
- A video shared on X shows workshops in China taking brand-new RTX 5090s apart and moving the GPU chip and memory onto server-style boards for AI work.
- Both partner cards and Nvidia's own Founders Edition are being stripped.
- In the US, custom RTX 5090s now start around $8,500 (about ₹8.1 lakh). The launch price was $1,999. Earlier this month, the few Indian listings left started near ₹2.7 lakh.
- Nvidia has reportedly stopped making the card. That still isn't confirmed.
What the video shows
Tom's Hardware reported the footage on October 24. Technicians heat the card's board and lift off two things: the GB202 GPU chip and its GDDR7 memory chips. Both are soldered onto a new circuit board with a slim, two-slot blower cooler, the kind that fits tightly packed server racks. The gaming card's big triple-fan cooler and original board are thrown away.
The rebuilt cards are tested on open benches, boxed up and shipped, most likely to AI labs and data centres. Tom's Hardware guesses "probably thousands" are converted a day across many workshops. That number is an estimate, not a count.
Image: Zerocade
This has been going on for a while
The new video shows the trade at a bigger scale, but it isn't new.
Image: Zerocade
- July 2025: a Bilibili video showed a Shenzhen company moving full GB202 chips from Zotac, Palit and Inno3D gaming cards onto custom dual-slot boards. Each rebuilt card got a 24-hour burn-in test, and up to eight could fit in one server chassis.
- January 2026: blower-style RTX 5090s with 32GB were listed on Taobao for about 29,000 yuan, alongside blower versions of the RTX 5080, 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti.
- October 2026: the new footage shows brand-new cards, including Founders Editions, being stripped in a production-line setup.
Why anyone would do this
The full RTX 5090 isn't officially sold in China because of US export rules. Nvidia sells a cut-down RTX 5090D there instead. But AI demand in China is huge, and for running AI models, a GB202 chip with fast memory is very good value next to Nvidia's data centre cards, which are far more restricted.
Memory matters most for AI. The bigger the model, the more video memory you need to hold it. That's why modified versions with far more than the stock 32GB have shown up for sale, with one listing advertising 96GB.
The cooler matters too. A gaming card's open-air cooler dumps hot air inside the case, which works in a PC but not when eight cards sit side by side. A blower pushes the heat straight out of the back of the server. At around 600W per card, that's a lot of heat to move.
Tom's Hardware notes it hasn't seen Nvidia pursue any action over the conversions.
What it means for gamers
This adds to the squeeze we covered in our post on Nvidia reportedly ending RTX 5090 production. Fewer chips are being made, and some of the cards that do ship never reach a gaming PC. US stock has almost vanished. Tom's Hardware notes that some complete gaming PCs now cost less than the card on its own.
Nvidia has said the 5090 "isn't dead", but it hasn't confirmed or denied the production halt.
On paper, the RTX 5090 is no longer a realistic gaming purchase for almost anyone. If you're shopping in India, the RTX 5080 is the sensible top card for now, and our DLSS 5 update post covers the features RTX 50 cards get anyway.
What to watch
Any Nvidia statement on future RTX 5090 supply, and whether the same conversion trade spreads further down to the RTX 5080. Until something changes, expect RTX 5090 prices to stay silly.
