NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 being 'unlaunched' from China board partners quietly

NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 is banned in China, and with news of the company will use a cut-down AD102-250 GPU for its upcoming China-friendly RTX 4090D... the RTX 4090D has been created specifically for the Chinese market.

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NVIDIA reportedly started increasing the number of AD102 GPU shipments into China, so that the Chinese board partners could prepare for when the RTX 4090 was banned from the Chinese market. The company knew this would happen, so Chinese AIB partners were ready... but now, these same Chinese board partners are unlaunching the RTX 4090.

Some of the Chinese board partners are removing mentions of the RTX 4090 from their website, with the likes of GAINWARD and GALAX both removing the cards and even if you look for them manually, you won't find them. The GAINWARD and GALAX cards have also both been removed from their respective websites.

Something weird here is that GALAX has unlaunched its RTX 4090 but only just announced its recent -- and elusive -- GeForce RTX 4090 20th Anniversary Edition graphics card, and now it's unlaunched, I guess. It was a huge celebration for the company, as GALAX just turned 20, and celebrated by releasing one of the best graphics cards it's ever made.

• Read more: NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090D for Chinese market uses cut down AD102-250 GPU
• Read more: GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 20th Anniversary Edition has triple-fan cooler

We've seen NVIDIA "unlaunch" graphics cards before, like the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB that the company unlaunched. Multiple board partners unveiled their designs, box arts, websites, and more... but then they disappeared. NVIDIA unlaunched the card, and it was all over. Here we go again, kinda, but for a new reason...