• $5,000 RTX 5090 Lightning Z gets killed in extreme overclocking attempt, thermal shock cracks the GPU core - MSI’s 2,500-Watt XOC BIOS pushed too high a voltage to the core Still managed to snag a world record. • Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. • You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful MSI recently launched its new RTX 5090 Lightning Z GPU, priced at a cheekily ridiculous $5,090 and aimed at extreme overclockers. • That means overclocking for achieving world records, not just unlocking extra performance. • As such, YouTuber Alva Jonatahan - whose escapades we’ve covered before - accepted the challenge and pushed this card to its absolute limits, and apparently past those, since it ended up dying in a sudden moment of thermal shock that cracked the GPU. • Jonathan was actually contacted back in August 2025 by MSI Taiwan to join the team as a consultant on the development of this GPU.
Article Summaries:
- $5,000 RTX 5090 Lightning Z gets killed in extreme overclocking attempt, thermal shock cracks the GPU core - MSI’s 2,500-Watt XOC BIOS pushed too high a voltage to the core Still managed to snag a world record. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful MSI recently launched its new RTX 5090 Lightning Z GPU, priced at a cheekily ridiculous $5,090 and aimed at extreme overclockers. That means overclocking for achieving world records, not just unlocking extra performance. As such, YouTuber Alva Jonata
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