Blower-style GPUs have mostly exited the mainstream due to how thermally inefficient they were in conventional setups. However, they still hold an important place in the server segment where clusters of GPUs are stacked next to each other in an open-air environment. China has been leading the wave for these for a while, and now Videocardz has spotted even more SKUs recently added to the collection.
In specific, we're talking about Nvidia's Blackwell family, or the RTX 50-series, where gaming variants of the flagship RTX 5090 have been stripped apart and retrofitted inside blower-style shrouds. So, these are not official partner cards, but rather aftermarket solutions. This goes for both the anomalously recurrent RTX 5090 32 GB that is banned in China, and the nerfed 5090D, plus the 5090D V2 with less VRAM.
What we're now starting to see are new GPUs, including the RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti — all SKUs with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory — being available for purchase on Taobao. The listing shows specs for all the models, but only the 5090 is pictured. This is also the standard 32 GB variant; not the upgraded cards with up to 128 GB of VRAM, though configs like those are likely also possible based on demand.
Now, the blower-style RTX 5090 32 GB will run you 29,000 Chinese Yuan, or about $4,156 USD, which is more expensive that most retail 5090s even right now. More interestingly, the blower 5080 is priced at $1,288, the RTX 5070 Ti will run you $1,103, while the RTX 5060 Ti is only around $573, which is about $100 more than gaming variants at the moment.
All of these represent a price premium because they're targeted at AI workloads and that is one blooming market right now. The 5090, in particular, has been a local darling in the region despite being export-controlled by Washington. Sprawling underground operations with factory-like production lines are gutting and reassembling these GPUs, making them ready for AI clients willing to pay big money.
Beyond just adding more VRAM, even just standard cards with blower coolers represent an upgrade for AI farms. This is because they suck in fresh air through the fan at the front and exhaust it out the back. Usually, this causes them to be louder in standard PC cases and run hotter since there's not enough intake, and the GPU is handling its own exhaust instead of handing it to the airflow of the entire case.
Now, compare that to dense spaces like data centers or server farms where a number of cards are packed together. There's no case to trap air, instead the cards are being kept cool externally. Therefore, this kind of setup is much better since it'll keep air from circulating within or between GPUs. Blower designs are also thinner, usually two-slot, so they take up less space, meaning more cards in the same stack.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
