China’s AI Factories Are Gutting Brand-New RTX 5090s, and You’re Paying $15K for What’s Left

Wondering where all the RTX 5090s went? Leaked footage doing the rounds this week says a lot of them are being torn apart on a production line in China. Brand-new cards, Nvidia’s own Founders Edition included, are stripped down to their GPU and memory, then rebuilt as skinny blower-style cards for AI servers. Meanwhile, a 5090 in New Zealand will cost you about fifteen grand, if you can find one at all.

What the video shows

The roughly two-minute clip was posted to X on 23 October by Hong Kong tech site HKEPC. VideoCardz reports that the original upload had already been taken down and that HKEPC supplied a copy. It shows:

• Workbenches stacked with retail-boxed and bare RTX 5090s from several brands. VideoCardz spotted PNY, Gigabyte, ASUS and Nvidia’s own Founders Edition, and Wccftech spotted an ROG Astral.
• Workers ripping off the huge triple-fan coolers, then using hot-air rework to lift the GB202 GPU die and the GDDR7 memory chips off the board.
• The parts transplanted onto new PCBs fitted with dual-slot, copper-based blower coolers.
• Rows of converted cards burning in on open test benches before being boxed up for customers.

【太精彩了吧 😱】近日，社交媒體 X 上流出多段顯示卡改裝工場內部影片，可以看到大量 GeForce RTX 5090 頂級遊戲顯示卡並未流向一般消費級零售市場，而是被整批運往大型改裝工廠。廠內工人在具備完整流水線的作業環境下，進行大規模拆解與改裝，將原本針對電競設計的三風扇散熱架構全數替換為 Dual… pic.twitter.com/hA08DM25B6

— HKEPC (@hkepcmedia) October 23, 2026

Why bother? A gaming 5090 is a three-to-four-slot brick that dumps its heat inside the case. A two-slot blower pushes hot air out the back, which means you can stack eight of them side by side in a 4U server. That’s the whole game.

What we don’t know

Some caution is warranted. Nobody has verified when or where the footage was filmed, or who runs the workshop. It could be weeks or months old. Outlets have counted “hundreds” of cards on screen, but Guru3D and Hardware Busters both point out that’s not a production figure. Tom’s Hardware’s claim that “probably thousands” are converted every day across the country isn’t backed by anything in the clip. Wccftech’s line that Nvidia “turns a blind eye” is speculation. Nvidia hadn’t commented on the footage when we checked.

This isn’t new, it’s just bigger

• Late 2023: Chinese factories were reported to be doing the same to the RTX 4090, moving its die and memory onto blower boards after new US export rules, and dumping the leftover coolers on the second-hand market.
• July 2025: a Bilibili creator filmed a Shenzhen firm converting Zotac, Palit and Inno3D 5090s into blower “Turbo” cards. The process was the same: BGA rework, a custom two-slot PCB and a 24-hour burn-in.
• China-only cards: because the full RTX 5090 can’t legally be exported to China under US controls, Nvidia sold a cut-down RTX 5090D there (with AI performance trimmed by about 30%), and later a 24GB 5090D V2. HKEPC has since reported that Chinese customs knocked back 5090D V2 imports. The full-fat 5090 clearly still finds a way in.
• Smuggling cases: US prosecutors have brought a string of Nvidia GPU smuggling cases. In one indictment unsealed this month, a California computer company is accused of routing more than US$300 million of GPU servers to China via Malaysia and Singapore, with RTX 4090s and 5090s named alongside A100s and H100s. Those are allegations, not convictions.

Why AI shops want gaming cards

Bang for buck. A 5090 has 32GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus (about 1.8TB/s) and Nvidia rates it at 3,352 AI TOPS. Nvidia’s pro card on the same chip, the RTX Pro 6000 with 96GB, reportedly goes for around US$15,000, and the real data-centre parts (H100, H200, B200) are restricted for China. As Hardware Busters put it, the 5090 is far more fast memory per dollar than anything Nvidia can legally sell into China. A gaming card at almost any price looks cheap next to that.

Meanwhile, back at the shops

The RTX 5090 launched at US$1,999 in January 2025. Now:

• United States: gone from Nvidia’s own store and Micro Center. Tom’s Hardware found third-party listings at about US$8,500 on Amazon and $7,300 on Newegg, with some partner cards near $10,000.
• New Zealand (checked 25 Oct): PB Tech lists a single Gigabyte Gaming OC at NZ$14,948.85 including GST, with no store stock, a 29 January ship date and a limit of one per customer. Computer Lounge lists models from NZ$14,999 to NZ$16,999, none showing as in stock.
• Australia (via StaticICE, 25 Oct): PC Case Gear and Scorptec list cards from about A$10,499 to A$11,999, though stock wasn’t confirmed. That’s well over double the roughly A$4,000 they went for at launch.

Supply is about to get worse. On 10 October, a leaked factory notice reported by Tom’s Hardware claimed Nvidia has stopped making the RTX 5090 altogether, moving GB202 to pro and data-centre cards, with an RTX 5080 24GB rumoured as the new gaming flagship. Nvidia SVP Jeff Fisher has since said supply is “somewhat constrained” but the card “has certainly not been discontinued” (as reported via 4Gamers). Things have got silly enough that thieves walked off with about US$470,000 of Zotac 5090s at a Brazilian airport this month.

Our take

This is the crypto-mining shortage all over again, just with better PR. The flagship gaming card has stopped being a gaming card. It’s a cheap AI accelerator that happens to come with RGB, and every gamer chasing one is bidding against a server farm with venture capital behind it. NZ$15,000 for a graphics card isn’t a price, it’s a punchline.

And let’s not pretend Nvidia’s sweating about it. Whether a 5090 ends up in a gaming rig or in a blower shroud in a Chinese rack, Nvidia already got paid. It has zero reason to put LHR-style blockers on these cards the way it did during the mining boom, and every reason to steer its silicon toward US$15,000 pro cards instead. Export controls clearly leak like a sieve too. If you’re running a 4090 or a 5080, keep it. If you’re hunting a 5090, a prebuilt is honestly the less insane option right now. Or just wait this out and let the AI bubble pop first.

Would you pay fifteen grand for a 5090, or are you riding out this generation? Tell us in the comments, or come cry about GPU prices with the rest of us in the GetRekt Discord.

Sources

• Tom’s Hardware: Leaked video exposes Chinese factories dismantling RTX 5090s (24 Oct 2026)
• HKEPC on X: original footage post (23 Oct 2026)
• VideoCardz: massive AI conversion factory exposed
• Wccftech: RTX 5090s turned into AI GPUs
• Guru3D: HKEPC footage
• Hardware Busters: conversion footage analysis
• Tom’s Hardware: Shenzhen 5090 blower conversions (July 2025)
• Tom’s Hardware: Chinese factories add blowers to RTX 4090s (2023)
• Tom’s Hardware: Nvidia reportedly halts RTX 5090 production
• Tom’s Hardware: Nvidia insists the RTX 5090 isn’t dead
• TweakTown: RTX 5090s named in alleged US$300M smuggling case
• Tom’s Hardware: stolen Brazil RTX 5090 shipment
• PB Tech: Gigabyte RTX 5090 Gaming OC and StaticICE AU (prices checked 25 Oct)