It was an exciting weekend for graphics card overclockers as several worked on one-upping each other in breaking world records with the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z. MSI dropped a hint of the returning flagship card on its social media page last week, but scores for it began appearing in 3DMark Time Spy before the card was officially announced. A trio of overclockers was already hard at work to see who could get the highest score and settings for the new king of GPUs, with one such run getting 53,207 points.
I heard that there will be a thunderstorm tomorrow… 😏
— MSI Gaming (@msigaming) January 5, 2026
Stay tuned⚡#MSIxCES2026 pic.twitter.com/qU2meUD6kR
As reported by VideoCardz (1, 2), OCer’s Littleboy, Lucky_nOOb, and Tsaik each push the card to its limits using a 2,500W XOC BIOS. The end result enabled a nearly 3.75 GHz core clock, combined with memory at 1750 MHz (36 Gbps) paired with an Intel Core i9-14900K and 48 GB DDR5 4000 MT/s memory.
UNLIMITED. PAWAH. pic.twitter.com/fwatQFFmRO
— Alva Jonathan (@Luckyn00bOc) January 4, 2026
The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z is said to utilize a 40-phase power delivery design and also features two 12V-2×6 connectors. Cooling was done using exotic means, presumably liquid nitrogen; however, a new image from MSI for a CES press release shows the card will have some sort of liquid cooling solution included. Meanwhile, the overclockers have provided numerous photos of their setups, but here are two giving a clear view of the PCB. Memory remains unchanged from the current RTX 5090 configuration with 32 GB GDDR7.
CES Press Release:
“Co-developed with NVIDIA, this ultimate flagship graphics card is engineered for unmatched performance and rock-solid stability, even at extreme power and clock speeds. MSI’s breakthrough dual-connector design delivers up to 1600W to a reinforced high-power PCB and premium VRM, unlocking exceptional compute density and overclocking headroom. To sustain this load, our next-generation exclusive liquid-cooling architecture employs an integrated full-contact cold plate beneath the block, extending coverage across the GPU, memory, and all high-power stages. A next-generation pump optimizes flow dynamics, feeding MSI’s patented hybrid-density radiator with zoned fin spacing for superior heat exchange. A silent, high-pressure axial fan with newly designed aerodynamic blades further boosts static pressure at low noise. The world’s first full-surface display enables real-time system visualization and personalization, while a dedicated mobile app lets users monitor and customize overclocking presets on the go. Together, this power delivery and thermal design provide sustained performance beyond RTX 5090-class expectations.”