Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a China-tailored version of its high-end GPU, has outperformed the RTX 5090D V2 in Geekbench 6.5’s OpenCL benchmark, scoring 390,656 compared to the 5090D V2’s 386,710. The result places it just ahead of the 5090D V2 and slightly behind the full-featured RTX Pro 6000 (server edition), which scored 410,605. Despite these strong numbers, the RTX 6000D’s performance comes amid significant setbacks. The card was banned by China’s Cyberspace Administration shortly after its release, discouraging adoption and pushing buyers toward domestic alternatives. This regulatory push came amid broader efforts to promote homegrown AI hardware and reduce reliance on U.S.-based technology. The RTX Pro 6000D features 84GB of GDDR7 memory across a 448-bit bus and 19,968 CUDA cores spread across 156 streaming multiprocessors (SMs). This represents a 14% reduction in memory capacity and bandwidth, and a 20% drop in CUDA cores compared to the standard RTX Pro 6000, which boasts 96GB of GDDR7, a 512-bit interface, and 24,064 CUDA cores across 188 SMs. While the OpenCL benchmark highlights solid shader compute performance—typically less impacted by Nvidia’s China-specific GPU restrictions—the results don’t tell the full story. AI workloads, which are central to modern generative AI applications, often suffer far greater performance reductions on these restricted D-series cards due to intentional limitations imposed by U.S. export controls. The RTX 6000D’s favorable benchmark scores might have made it an attractive option under different circumstances. However, its launch coincided with a hostile regulatory environment and rising competition from Chinese GPU makers like Huawei’s Ascend series and Alibaba’s Tongyi chips. These domestic alternatives have gained traction due to government support and localization incentives. As a result, despite its technical capabilities, the RTX 6000D’s legacy is likely to be remembered more as a cautionary tale than a milestone. It underscores the challenges of navigating geopolitical restrictions and market dynamics in the global AI hardware race. Its performance, while impressive on paper, could not overcome the broader forces shaping China’s technology ecosystem.