Chinese gamers are expected to have limited access to Nvidia’s best graphics card due to strict export restrictions. However, Nvidia may have found a way around it without cutting down its flagship GPU. A new leak suggests that the RTX 5090D will have the same hardware specifications as the worldwide version, and the solution lies in firmware adjustments.
As a quick refresher, the “D” in RTX 5090D stands for “Dragon.” It marks GPUs made by Nvidia to bypass the export restrictions imposed by the U.S. on China, which limit the sale of high-performance graphics processors. We first saw it appear in the RTX 4090D as a remedy for the fact that the base RTX 4090 exceeds the performance thresholds set by these regulations.
Initially, Nvidia adopted a simple approach and started selling the RTX 4090D as a cut-down RTX 4090, with fewer CUDA cores and lower power consumption. As VideoCardz notes, they were also not supposed to be overclocked (although people found a way around that in the end). However, it’s easy to imagine that this wouldn’t have worked with the RTX 5090, which is said to be significantly more powerful than its predecessor.
This brings us to today’s leak. As always, remember that we’re dealing with rumors, and the following may not turn out to be true once the RTX 50-series hits the shelves.
According to Panzerlied, a leaker from the Chiphell forums, the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5090D will be one and the same in terms of specifications. Both will use the GB202 GPU without any hardware adjustments, but Nvidia will limit the AI performance of these GPUs in order to meet the regulations.
It’s unclear what kind of firmware changes Nvidia could add to make sure that the RTX 5090D won’t be quite as useful for AI workloads. One way to go about it would be to limit Tensor core performance, but this would also affect DLSS 3 capabilities. This might make the card much less worth buying for gamers when compared to the RTX 4090D, which, while cut-down, gets the full power of DLSS 3. Nvidia could also slice the card’s default power limit.
This reminds us of the lite hash rate (LHR) limiter versions of RTX 30-series cards. While the GPUs were the same on a hardware level, Nvidia attempted to make them less useful for cryptocurrency miners by including BIOS limiters. Crypto enthusiasts found their way around this pretty quickly, though — whether the same happens to the RTX 5090D remains to be seen.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.