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Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Hassam Nasir

RTX 5090s get ready to blow with AI-focused makeovers in China — industrial production lines transplant GPU and memory from gaming cards onto server-ready PCBs with blower-style coolers

RTX 5090 "Turbo" blower-style GPUs.

The RTX 5090 is supposed to be the crown jewel of gaming GPUs—a 600W monster designed for enthusiasts. But in China, a very different story is unfolding. A recent video from Bilibili creator Ajian Talk exposes a parallel production line where these consumer cards are stripped bare, rebuilt, and reborn as blower-style “Turbo” models for AI servers. We've seen AI-focused 5090s surfacing from China before, but this is a rare look into the actual process of how they're made.

What’s striking is the scale at which this work is done, as Ajian’s footage shows stacks of retail RTX 5090 boxes, complete with packaging and protective films, sitting in storage. These cards are tightly controlled and only available as 'D' variants due to U.S. export restrictions, yet somehow a Shenzhen-based company called "CT" has stockpiles large enough to fuel entire assembly lines. These are standard gaming variants from the likes of Zotac, Palit, and Inno3D, too.

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