NVIDIA RTX 4090 with 96GB VRAM: A Potential Game-Changer for AI Workloads

Nvidia might launch a 96GB RTX 4090 as weak supply limits market growth

In brief: Although Nvidia's RTX 5090 is technically the new performance king, it isn't a quantum leap over its predecessor, the 4090, which remains one of the best products for gaming and AI workloads. As insufficient stocks of new GPUs hold the market back, refreshing Nvidia's older architecture with a monstrous VRAM pool might satisfy customers seeking compute performance. A web developer going by "@eisneim" on X (formerly Twitter) claims to have seen an RTX 4090 with 96GB of VRAM, quadruple the 24GB normally available to gamers. It's unclear when the productivity-focused graphics card might be available, but signs suggest the 5090 hasn't completely pushed its predecessor out of the market. Eisneim spotted the 96GB RTX 4090 in a Shenzhen factory while exchanging his 24GB model for the 48GB variant. An employee said the enhanced GPU is still undergoing testing and that mass production will take some time, but they expect high demand. Eisneim predicts it could become available in China in three or four months. Another user, Fangyin Cheng, claims to have heard from a Shenzhen vendor that the 96GB card might appear in May. Most consumers are likely only familiar with the 24GB version of the enthusiast-class GPU, which provides plenty of VRAM for playing games in 4K with ray tracing. However, variants with twice that amount began appearing in China last year. Designed to facilitate cloud computing and AI, the enhanced graphics cards typically cost over $2,000, and the 96GB versions could double the cost. The development comes as Nvidia's latest GPU lineup, the RTX 50 series, faces headwinds due to low stock and the threat of tariffs on goods imported from China into the United States. Retail CEOs predict higher prices, and market analysis suggests the dedicated graphics market could suffer. Every RTX 50 GPU, including the RTX 5070 that Nvidia launched this week, instantly disappeared from store shelves on launch day and is rarely - if ever - available at MSRP. Reports suggest that supply could improve in the coming weeks, but a new report from Jon Peddie Research warns that tariffs might slow the market through the rest of 2025. Weak stock from Nvidia, the market leader, already dampened GPU market growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, which grew by only one percent. All of that growth came from laptop graphics, which rose by two percent while discrete AIBs declined by three percent. AMD's competing products, the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, might launch with significantly stronger supply while beating Nvidia's mid-range GPUs in early benchmarks. Whether Team Red's cards actually appear at MSRP remains to be seen, but Jon Peddie predicts that the company won't escape the impact of tariffs.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 With 96GB VRAM Reportedly Exists; The GPU May Enter Mass Production Soon, Targeting AI Workloads

The GeForce RTX 4090 with 96 GB VRAM is rumored to be in the test phase and will reportedly enter mass production soon. It seems that the rumors about the RTX 4090 with more than 24 GB VRAM are somewhat true. This isn't official yet, but the leaks have confirmed that the RTX 4090 with 96 GB VRAM will be released soon, along with the one with 48 GB memory. A user by the username @eisneim posted on X that he had received the confirmation of a 96 GB edition of GeForce RTX 4090. Now, this particular edition is not yet in mass production but is relatively still in the testing phase. Once it passes all the required tests, it will be released in the future. We still want you to take this with a grain of salt, but one of the factory employees has confirmed this, and it looks feasible. As per another user in the thread, one of the factories is selling an RTX 4090 with 48 GB VRAM, but they informed him that the 96 GB edition isn't possible. However, the OP informed that it is a different factory, and they claimed that making one with 96 GB VRAM onboard isn't tricky. The user did confirm that the one with a 96 GB VRAM won't guarantee stability and that its cost, due to a higher VRAM, will be twice the amount you would pay on the 48 GB edition. As per the user, this is one of the reasons why the factories are considering making only the 48 GB edition but may prepare the 96 GB in about 3-4 months. RTX 4090 has a 384-bit memory bus, so it will need at least 4GB GDDR6X memory modules to reach 96 GB on a custom PCB through the 12 channels. However, currently, neither GDDR6X nor GDDR6 have 4GB modules and are limited to just 2GB capacity. One user says that the manufacturer making the 96 GB edition does have 4GB memory chips, but we don't know how and from which manufacturer. Guess we will find out in a couple of months, but at least for now, it's safe to say that the 96 GB edition of the RTX 4090 does look possible. With such a large VRAM capacity, workloads such as AI and data-intensive tasks will be highly advantageous, and it's unlikely that the 96 GB editions will offer any additional benefits in gaming. And given that how difficult it is to get AI accelerators for regions like China, consumer GPUs with bumped up VRAMs might do the job.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with upgraded 96GB VRAM teased: could release soon for AI workloads

TL;DR: NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090, originally with 24GB of GDDR6X memory, is being modded to 48GB and potentially 96GB, aimed at AI workloads. While not in mass production, these modifications could offer a cheaper alternative to workstation GPUs. However, stability and cost concerns remain due to the unconventional VRAM increase. NVIDIA's previous-gen GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB of GDDR6X memory, but it has been modded with 48GB recently, and now we're hearing we're going to see custom RTX 4090s with a whopping 96GB of GDDR6X... perfect for AI workloads. In a new post on X by @eisneim who said they had received confirmation of a 96GB version of the GeForce RTX 4090, and that this modded card isn't in mass production but in the testing phase. Once it's passed the testing phase, it could be released onto the market as a cheaper alternative to workstation-class RTX series GPUs thanks to its huge 96GB of VRAM. This isn't guaranteed just yet, but with Chinese companies modding the GeForce RTX 4090D from 24GB to 48GB, and the RTX 4080 from 16GB to 32GB, the idea of an RTX 4090 or RTX 4090D modded to 96GB would be a huge deal. In a reply to the post on X, a user said that one of the factories is selling an RTX 4090 with 48GB of VRAM, and that the 96GB version isn't possible. The OP was informed that this is a different factory doing different things, and that making an RTX 4090 with 96GB of VRAM isn't hard. A modded RTX 4090 with 48GB or the monster 96GB of GDDR6X memory won't be guaranteed with stability over time, and due to the large amount of VRAM, the RTX 4090 with 96GB would cost twice as much as the RTX 4090 48GB card. The RTX 4090 ships with a 384-bit memory bus so you would need at least 4GB GDDR6X memory modules in order to hit 96GB on a custom PCB with 12 channels. There are no 4GB modules of GDDR6X memory on the market, as they're limited to 2GB, but one user said the manufacturer making the RTX 4090 96GB card does have 4GB modules, but that's just hearsay... we don't know who, or where from in a world where they don't exist. 96GB of VRAM is a huge win for AI workloads and users who don't want to spend considerably more on an AI-specific GPU like the NVIDIA H100 or H200, but considering there's no long-term guarantee because it's a modded card doing something it wasn't built for (24GB versus 96GB VRAM), the concerns of that when spending thousands of dollars per GPU and probably wanting many of these for an AI GPU farm... yeah, it feels a bit sketchy. Still, I'm a huge nerd and seeing 96GB of VRAM on the RTX 4090 would be awesome to see, no matter that.