In brief: Although Nvidia's RTX 5090 is technically the new performance king, it isn't a quantum leap over its predecessor, the 4090, which remains one of the best products for gaming and AI workloads. As insufficient stocks of new GPUs hold the market back, refreshing Nvidia's older architecture with a monstrous VRAM pool might satisfy customers seeking compute performance.
A web developer going by "@eisneim" on X (formerly Twitter) claims to have seen an RTX 4090 with 96GB of VRAM, quadruple the 24GB normally available to gamers. It's unclear when the productivity-focused graphics card might be available, but signs suggest the 5090 hasn't completely pushed its predecessor out of the market.
Eisneim spotted the 96GB RTX 4090 in a Shenzhen factory while exchanging his 24GB model for the 48GB variant. An employee said the enhanced GPU is still undergoing testing and that mass production will take some time, but they expect high demand. Eisneim predicts it could become available in China in three or four months. Another user, Fangyin Cheng, claims to have heard from a Shenzhen vendor that the 96GB card might appear in May.
RTX 4090 96GB confirmed! I went to the GPU factory one last time to sell my last 4090 24GB and buy a brand new 48GB; 24GB was bought in late 2023 for ￥15k($2059) now sell for ￥18.2k($2498) and buy 48GB for ￥22300($3061) @bdsqlsz @main_horse pic.twitter.com/U01jQbiY7h
– eisneim (@eisneim) March 3, 2025
Most consumers are likely only familiar with the 24GB version of the enthusiast-class GPU, which provides plenty of VRAM for playing games in 4K with ray tracing. However, variants with twice that amount began appearing in China last year. Designed to facilitate cloud computing and AI, the enhanced graphics cards typically cost over $2,000, and the 96GB versions could double the cost.
The development comes as Nvidia's latest GPU lineup, the RTX 50 series, faces headwinds due to low stock and the threat of tariffs on goods imported from China into the United States. Retail CEOs predict higher prices, and market analysis suggests the dedicated graphics market could suffer.
Every RTX 50 GPU, including the RTX 5070 that Nvidia launched this week, instantly disappeared from store shelves on launch day and is rarely – if ever – available at MSRP. Reports suggest that supply could improve in the coming weeks, but a new report from Jon Peddie Research warns that tariffs might slow the market through the rest of 2025.
Weak stock from Nvidia, the market leader, already dampened GPU market growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, which grew by only one percent. All of that growth came from laptop graphics, which rose by two percent while discrete AIBs declined by three percent.
AMD's competing products, the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, might launch with significantly stronger supply while beating Nvidia's mid-range GPUs in early benchmarks. Whether Team Red's cards actually appear at MSRP remains to be seen, but Jon Peddie predicts that the company won't escape the impact of tariffs.