China-modified Nvidia RTX 5090 with massive 96GB of memory appears on Alibaba for less than $4,000 — 3x more VRAM at 65% the cost of the original

palladin9479 usertests said: Micron has a roadmap suggesting 4 GB (32 Gb) GDDR7 modules will come within a couple years. So eventually, you will see 128 GB GDDR7 on a 512-bit GPU (32 modules in clamshell configuration). I doubt we'll see consumer clamshell cards again. It's a terrible design compromise where you run your VRAM at half speed to get more capacity. Something workstation or datacenter GPUs do but not something a consumer needs. Reply

usertests palladin9479 said: I doubt we'll see consumer clamshell cards again. It's a terrible design compromise where you run your VRAM at half speed to get more capacity. Something workstation or datacenter GPUs do but not something a consumer needs. The popular 9060 XT 16GB uses clamshell memory. It has the same 128-bit bus and memory bandwidth as a 9060 XT 8GB. I don't think anybody cares that the memory chips aren't technically being used to their full potential as they would be on a 256-bit memory bus, it's all about the capacity on a "budget" GPU. Doubled bandwidth could increase performance, but it would also increase power consumption of the card. Same story with the 5060 Ti 16GB. There's usually at least one card like this per generation. Even the 64-bit 6500 XT 8GB, although not many of those got made. Reply

usertests I guess I could see the rise of 3 GB and 4 GB GDDR7 modules putting an end to clamshell cards, IF the prices are not super-inflated as 3 GB modules supposedly are right now. If you can give the consumer 16 GB on 128-bit using 4x4GB, no clamshell, is there any point to giving them more (such as 8x3GB)? Probably not, unless the next-gen console games are extremely VRAM demanding. I think JEDEC has specified 6 GB and 8 GB GDDR7 modules in the GDDR7 standard, but there's no guarantee that memory manufacturers will ever make them before moving onto the next thing. Reply

palladin9479 usertests said: The popular 9060 XT 16GB uses clamshell memory. Yes and it's a bad design. Those DRAM chips have half their traces disconnected. If you are going to use eight GDDR DRAM chips then you need to use eight 32-bit memory channels for them. Each GDDR DRAM chip is a 32-bit interface that accepts two 16-bit commands per cycle. You are halving your memory performance to double capacity, which is a bad trade off for consumers as performance is almost universally limited by memory bandwidth not capacity. The only reason we even see that in consumer space is because the memory cartel was years behind on 24/32Gb modules and techtubers used rage bait to spread misinformation online. Doubled bandwidth could increase performance, but it would also increase power consumption of the card. That is not how powerful consumption works, clamshell mode use's more power because eight chips use more power then four. Halving the traces does not reduce their power usage, it's the same voltage and clock speed. If anything it's lower total memory as you spend twice as much power budget on those extra chips and need more VRAM cooling for it, though the monster is still the GPU itself. Reply

Key considerations

• Investor positioning can change fast
• Volatility remains possible near catalysts
• Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows

Reference reading

• https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
• https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/china-modified-nvidia-rtx-5090-with-massive-96gb-of-memory-appears-on-alibaba-for-less-than-usd4-000-3x-more-vram-at-65-percent-the-cost-of-the-original#main
• https://www.tomshardware.com/membership

More on this site

• Asus routers gain FCC's 'Conditional Approval' for sale in the US as TP-Link remains locked out — Asus's Wi-Fi 8 ambitions remain intact
• Up to 30x More Work Per Watt: NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 Sets a New Efficiency Standard for AI Agents
• OpenAI says its next-generation processors could be made at Samsung — double-sourcing with TSMC hints at massive volume requirements [Updated]
• Hardware-accurate NeoGeo AES+ delayed to late 2027 due to memory shortage — decision driven by surging demand and AI-driven RAM crunch
• Physical AI Takes the Wheel: How the World’s Robotaxi Leaders Are Building With NVIDIA Technologies

Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.