Pushing an RTX 5090 to 1000W: Extreme Overclocking and Sub-Zero Cooling

Extreme Overclocking Preparations

• 🚀 The team aims to push an ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 to its limits by exceeding its rated 600W power draw, targeting over 1000W.
• 🥶 To manage the extreme heat, they plan to use an industrial chiller and an environmental chamber to control temperature and humidity, minimizing condensation risks.
• 💡 A special hybrid liquid metal compound is applied to the GPU for improved thermal conductivity, though running 1000W poses a risk to the card's reliability.

Water Cooling and Initial Testing

• 💧 A Bits Power Nebula GPU water block is installed, showcasing impressive machining but raising concerns about fitting quality and potential GPU sag.
• ⚠️ Initial tests with water cooling reveal issues, with the GPU frequency at zero, indicating a problem that needs troubleshooting before overclocking can begin.
• 📈 After resolving initial setup issues and switching to a higher power BIOS, the team hits 970W, noting that the card was running hot, prompting the decision to proceed with more aggressive cooling.

Industrial Chiller and Sub-Zero Attempts

• 🧊 An industrial chiller is brought in to drastically lower coolant temperatures, aiming to achieve significantly better thermal performance than ambient cooling.
• 🛠️ A makeshift radiator setup is created within the environmental chamber using high-speed fans and a shroud to maximize airflow and cooling efficiency, especially after the industrial chiller shows signs of malfunction.
• 🥶 With the custom cooling solution and the chiller's pump still functional, the team achieves sub-zero coolant temperatures, reaching 8°C and later -4°C, with the GPU at 12°C and -0.5°C respectively.

Record-Breaking Performance

• 🏆 The extreme overclocking and sub-zero cooling efforts result in significant performance gains, pushing the RTX 5090 to new heights and achieving top rankings on 3D Mark leaderboards.
• 📈 The team reaches 45,354 in benchmarks, securing 16th place, and later improves to 45,349, then 45,354, and ultimately 45,450, placing them in the top 5 and even beating some LN2 (liquid nitrogen) scores.
• 🚀 The system, despite using an AMD CPU not fully optimized for the benchmark, achieves top AMD results and top Canadian results, demonstrating the effectiveness of their extreme cooling methods.

Gaming and Conclusion

• 🎮 The ultra-powerful system is tested in games like Counter-Strike and Oblivion Remastered, showcasing exceptionally high frame rates, with Oblivion running at a casual 560 FPS.
• 💰 The total cost of the extreme setup, including the PC and chiller, is estimated to be around $50,000, highlighting the cost of pushing hardware to its absolute limits.
• ✅ The experiment is deemed a success, with the team achieving their goal of pushing the RTX 5090 to its extreme limits and setting new performance records.