China is the land of oddities, especially when it comes to GPUs. Laptop GPUs adapted for desktop use are a well-known and well-established process, but this is the first time we’ve heard of RTX 4090Ms and RTX 4080Ms being repurposed. The only hitch in this story is the quality of the GPUs, which is, to say the least, random.
RTX 4090M and RTX 4080M of dubious quality converted into desktop GPUs!
The big advantage of mobile GPUs lies in their lower power consumption. In the case of mobile RTX 40s, this is partly due to the fact that they don’t share an identical datasheet to their desktop counterparts. Indeed, an RTX 4080M offers a datasheet closer to a desktop RTX 4070 than to an RTX 4080. The same applies to the 4090M, which is closer to the 4080 than to the RTX 4090 PCIe.
In short, all this makes it easy to adapt to PCIe versions, and at lower cost… Especially when you’re looking at GPUs of random quality.
Indeed, some people have been able to get their hands on these cards at much more affordable prices than the desktop versions. However, on disassembly, the GPUs have been through a lot, with some showing scratches or even “cracks”. Worse still, some of the chips are even qualification copies, as the words ” Qual sample ” appear on the chip.
This suggests that the chips have been hastily soldered on a print circuit. Of course, a modded driver will be required to operate the card, so no official driver support. And given the quality of GPUs, having a functional card isn’t even guaranteed. In short, this kind of solution should be avoided unless you’ve got money to burn, but these days…
