WTF?! It seems that if you have the money to buy a pre-built RTX 5090 PC from Micro Center and one is in stock, you will also have to sign a statement promising not to export the flagship graphics card. But it’s unclear exactly how enforceable this form is and whether it would actually stop people from selling the chips to China and elsewhere.
Redditor Krothic writes that they recently purchased a pre-built PowerSpec Ai90 PC with an RTX 5090. The store manager told them that to purchase the PC they would need to fill out a form and have their driver’s license scanned to associate their name with the purchase.
After the section requiring information such as name, photo ID and phone number, the form states that the person must purchase the PC for personal or business use in the United States, “or I have specifically identified the actual end user above.”
The next item specifies that the Product shall remain in the United States and shall not be exported, re-exported, transferred, resold, delivered, or otherwise made available that results in the PC leaving the United States to any destination for any reason.
These days, getting an RTX 5090 usually means spending more than $7,000, with at least one special edition model costing $11,229. In many cases, it’s cheaper to buy a complete pre-built PC with a GPU than to buy the card individually – and of course all other components are included in the price.
With its 32GB of VRAM, the RTX 5090 is considered as much of an AI-focused card as it is a gaming card, if not more so. Therefore, export of the standard RTX 5090 is restricted to mainland China in accordance with US export controls. Nvidia made separate versions 5090 D and 5090 D V2 for the Chinese market.
The manager of the micro center said the process has already been in place for two days. There are certainly many questions about this. What happens if, years later, the buyer decides to sell the system or its GPU used, and that person then sells it overseas? What happens if the system is stolen and ends up abroad?
A comment on the thread also claims that Micro Center wouldn’t sell an RTX 5090 to a customer if that were the case either always bought one in the past. Another user said the same thing happened to them.
Ultimately, this all seems to be another reason why people don’t want to buy an RTX 5090 or a system with an RTX 5090 right now. And once again, it’s the AI’s fault.
