2500W extreme overclocking BIOS causes RTX 5090 Lightning Z GPU to crack

Announced at CES 2026, MSI's new GeForce RTX 5090 LIGHTNING Z limited edition flagship GPU has more than lived up to its promise of being the world's most powerful PC gaming graphics card. As per our review, it performs more like a GeForce RTX 5090 Ti than an RTX 5090. As a card built for extreme overclocking, it's also the first RTX 5090 to ship with a dual-BIOS setup, including a default 800W OC mode and an insane 1000W Extreme mode.

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When MSI announced the card, it also confirmed that a fully unlocked, experimental 2500W BIOS was available, which not only voided the warranty but would be provided only to extreme overclockers looking to set new world records with liquid nitrogen cooling. Jonathan Alva, an extreme overclocker and YouTuber from Indonesia, is one example - and his recent benchmarking with the 2500W XOC BIOS for the RTX 5090 LIGHTNING Z caused the "Blackwell" GB202-300-A1 GPU die to crack.

The good news is that, as Alva was one of the extreme overclockers that MSI worked with when developing the new RTX 5090 LIGHTNING Z, the GPU die cracking like a broken mirror was most likely due to an early version of the 2500W XOC BIOS, causing extremely high voltage in a short amount of time, leading to thermal shock. That, and apparently, he has three more RTX 5090 LIGHTNING Z cards.

Now it's worth pointing out that 2500W doesn't necessarily mean that the GPU can draw up to 2500W; it's more about the voltage, boost clock, and other limits being completely removed, which is why the XOC BIOS is limited to a small group of overclockers. At least that's the idea, as the 2500W XOC BIOS has already leaked (via Overclock.net). As we discussed in our review, the out-of-the-box 800W performance is already impressive, given how much extra performance the RTX 5090 LIGHTNING Z can deliver, with the 1000W Extreme mode a fun option for seeing how high those numbers can go.