NVIDIA RTX 5090 laptop GPU is 'shunt modded' to make it 20-30% faster in games

NVIDIA's laptop version of the RTX 5090 has been a disappointment for some gamers - at least in some respects - but what if you could make it 20% faster, or more?

That's what an intrepid YouTuber, GizmoSlipTech, has managed to do, but it involves a complex and risky form of overclocking known as shunt modding.

This involves replacing a resistor on the graphics card (or adding one in parallel) to mess with the voltage controls, and essentially pipe through more power than would otherwise be allowed.

With this method applied successfully - which yes, involves soldering, and a good level of experience therein - it's possible to fool the GPU into thinking 175W is being supplied (the ceiling for the RTX 5090), when in actual fact, 250W is.

Beyond merely increasing the raw wattage, there's tweaking that needs to be done on top (like upping the target GPU clock speed with Afterburner, and undervolting to help with thermal control - as GizmoSlipTech explains in a Reddit post).

The results are that the RTX 5090 mobile at 250W is 22% faster in Cyberpunk 2077 than with its baseline 175W power envelope. We see a similar gain of 23% in Black Myth: Wukong, and The Witcher 3 does even better, with the juiced-up RTX 5090 managing to be 29% faster.

There are more modest gains in the order of 15% or so for Rainbow Six Siege and Hogwarts Legacy, but those are still well worthwhile, naturally.

Synthetic benchmarks are even more pepped up than gaming tests, with a 40% increase witnessed in 3DMark Steel Nomad.

Cool runnings

Obviously enough, those who want to experiment with shunt modding certainly need to ensure their gaming laptop has a good cooling solution. As we all know, performing this trick in a desktop PC is one thing, but in the confines of a laptop chassis, the potential for overheating is a whole lot trickier to manage (which is where the mentioned undervolting comes in, of course).

That's not to say it can't be done, though of course most people won't be capable of this kind of modding. However, as VideoCardz, which spotted this, points out, the likes of XMG and Eluktronics are talking about offering solutions to juice up the wattage of NVIDIA's laptop GPU.

For those concerned about the longevity of this kind of mod, the temperatures actually seem reasonable here.

GizmoSlipTech enthuses:

"All the data has convinced me that NVIDIA should really increase the GPU wattage in future laptops, and I would recommend stop playing policeman against their partners, and they start collaborating to create the highest performing products again."

On top of that, there are plenty of tales on Reddit penned by laptop owners who've shunt modded an RTX 4090 mobile, and the notebook is still working just fine after a year or more (obviously, add your own seasoning here).