The RTX 4090 is currently the fastest gaming graphics card, but it cannot be sold in China. Merchants are using a trick to still sell this graphics card for a lot of money.
The RTX 4090 is one of the most sought-after graphics cards in China, but US authorities have banned the export of graphics cards to China. Now merchants and gamers are looking for other ways to get their hands on the coveted graphics card.
One option now is to buy complete PCs and resell the graphics card. It sounds crazy, but the merchants are still making profit from it. The RTX 4090 is in such high demand that it is even worth it to sell gaming PCs for a lot of money. This inadvertently reminds of times when scalpers sold graphics cards for thousands of euros on eBay.
RTX 4090 is in high demand, prices and demand have exploded in the last few months
Why is the graphics card so sought after? There are various reasons for this. On the one hand, it is considered the fastest graphics card you can buy in 2024. On the other hand, the RTX 4090 is a coveted alternative to Nvidia’s official AI graphics cards: The H100 and A100 GPUs are also restricted and cost a fortune due to high demand. In the AI sector, there is currently “only” one graphics card from AMD as an alternative, but AMD and Nvidia have been arguing for a long time about who has the fastest graphics card on offer.
This makes a gaming graphics card with corresponding AI performance quite appealing for many.
Is this type of resale worth it? Yes, very much so. The colleagues from WCCFTech report that in one case a buyer purchased 20 complete gaming PCs with RTX 4090. For each system, he had to pay 32,000 Chinese Yuan, which is approximately 4,190 euros per system. But just with reselling, the merchants make a huge profit.
This is mainly because the customers of these merchants often come from the professional sector and are interested in the AI capabilities of the GPUs. And for many of these customers, the price they have to pay for an RTX 4090 is almost irrelevant.
Just for comparison: For an RTX 4090, you pay around 1,800 euros in Germany. The price in China is more than double that.
What are the developments in China? In China, they are trying, not surprisingly, to become less dependent on exports from the United States. In the largest country in Asia, a lot of money has been invested for months in the development of processors, graphics cards, and other components. The goal is to free themselves from dependence on Western technologies and sanctions.
One such development is the KX-7000 series. This is a processor that the Chinese company Zhaoxin has introduced for consumers and gamers. And this processor looks really promising. While it still doesn’t surpass AMD and Intel, it could become a hidden gem:
A new processor could become a secret tip for gamers – Neither from AMD nor Intel
