It’s going to be an uphill battle for the unfortunate user for sure, as everything seems to be against them. First and foremost, the GeForce RTX 5090 is a sanctioned graphics card under the U.S. export restrictions , so you can't purchase it through an authorized channel in China. Nvidia has a special GeForce RTX 5090D and, subsequently, a GeForce RTX 5090D V2 for the Chinese market. There is no official warranty coverage for GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards that have sneaked their way into the black market through smuggling . Therefore, RMA is off the table for the victim.
The video footage doesn't reveal exactly which components ignited. One thing is certain, though. The short circuit appears to have originated from multiple locations simultaneously rather than from a single point. The fire left burned marks on the motherboard's chipset. If the damage is limited to the PCB, a skilled technician could probably transplant the GB202 die and the accompanying GDDR7 memory chips to another PCB. However, if the aforementioned components are damaged or completely destroyed, there is likely no happy ending for the owner of a charred GeForce RTX 5090. They won't know the extent of the damage until they can take the graphics card to a repair shop. Sadly, many shops have already closed for the Chinese New Year holidays, so they're in for an excruciating wait.
The street price for the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Gaming Trio OC hovers around $3,299 in the U.S. market. To add salt to the wound, the Bilibili user paid the market price for the GeForce RTX 5090. The last time we checked, the market price for the GeForce RTX 5090 in China is around $4,000 to $5,000. Unless the user planned to use the GeForce RTX 5090 for AI, it was more prudent to choose the GeForce RTX 5090D V2, as gaming benchmarks have shown minimal performance difference compared to the original.
The story is a reminder of how delicate computer hardware can be, and how quickly an expensive graphics card can become a luxury paperweight.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/rtx-5090-kicks-off-the-chinese-new-year-early-with-fireworks-usd3-299-dream-gpu-upgrade-becomes-a-fiery-nightmare#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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