HKEPC footage shows RTX 5090 cards rebuilt for AI servers in China

Hong Kong media outlet HKEPC shared footage on October 23 said to come from a graphics card modification factory in China, showing standard GeForce RTX 5090 cards being converted into AI server hardware, according to HKEPC.

The video shows cards being disassembled, with the GB202 chip and GDDR memory removed and transplanted onto a custom board fitted with a blower-style cooling mechanism. The modified cards appear to be repurposed for AI server use.

The stacked cards in the footage are standard RTX 5090 models, including units from ASUS, GIGABYTE and PNY, high-end models such as ASUS's ROG Astral series, and NVIDIA's own Founders Edition.

The United States restricts exports of the RTX 5090 to China, and NVIDIA sells China-market models such as the performance-adjusted GeForce RTX 5090 D v2. It is not clear how Chinese operators obtain so many of these graphics cards.

Earlier modification work

Such conversions have precedent: in the past, modifications were made to raise the VRAM of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 from 24GB to 48GB, and reports of Chinese graphics card modification factories have appeared since last year. Some Chinese suppliers claim modified RTX 5090 products with 32GB of memory upgraded to 64GB or 96GB are circulating, but no working units have been confirmed.