NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090M, RTX 4080M appear in China: laptop GPUs marketed as desktop GPUs

NVIDIA's current-generation GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU and GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU can now be found inside desktop GPUs, at least in China.

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080M desktop GPU (source: Goofish)

According to a new article on VideoCardz, Chinese companies that specialize in marketing mobile GPUs as desktop GPUs with a low operating margin by using less expensive mobile GPUs, budget cooling designs, and simpler PCBs, with their power limits capped at 175W because they are mobile GPUs.

This isn't all sunshine and rainbows, as there are things like warranty that gamers have to worry about, as well as possible issues when it comes to driver support. VideoCardz reports that they get emails from readers who have "difficulties" with using these cards. Consumers of these mobile-now-desktop GPUs have to use modded drivers or seller-provided drivers that we don't know where they come from.

NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU features an AD103 GPU with 9728 CUDA cores, which is a 40% reduction in CUDA cores versus the desktop GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. Another major difference between the RTX 4090 Laptop GPU and RTX 4090 desktop GPU is that the mobile variant features just 16GB of GDDR6 memory, which is 8GB less memory than the desktop GPU, and the fact that the desktop RTX 4090 features faster GDDR6X memory, too.

Moving onto the GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, which features 7424 CUDA cores representing a 24% reduction in CUDA cores over the desktop RTX 4080. On the memory side of things, the RTX 4080 Laptop GPU features 12GB of GDDR6 memory, down 4GB from the desktop RTX 4080, which features 16GB of faster GDDR6X memory.

Chinese sellers market the GeForce RTX 4080M with performance that sits between the d desktop RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti graphics cards, but with a 175W power limit, it will be interesting to see how it fares against the RTX 4070 Ti with its 285W default power limit.

The new GeForce RTX 4080M (desktop GPU) is listed for somewhere between 3000 RMB and 4000 RMB (somewhere between $420 and $560 USD). Meanwhile, the new GeForce RTX 4090M (desktop GPU) is priced at a much, much higher 13800 RMB (around $1900+ USD).

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090M + RTX 4080M desktop GPUs (source: Goofish)

This makes the RTX 4090M MORE expensive than the official RTX 4090 desktop GPU, but US sanctions have the RTX 4090 graphics card BANNED in China... so these sellers can do whatever they want, I guess.

The new GeForce RTX 4090M and GeForce RTX 4080M are very new in China, appearing this month, without any mentions of the RTX 4070M or RTX 4060M models (yet).

In any case, beware: these aren't anywhere near the performance of the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, as they're gimped (CUDA core count, VRAM count, power limit restrictions) so be careful if you are in China and considering one of these new RTX 4090M or RTX 4080M desktop graphics cards.