MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z With 8-Inch Display Breaks 1000W Barrier For Extreme Performance
One of the cooler things we saw in person at CES this year is MSI's new GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z. A flagship GPU like the GeForce RTX 5090 is capable of standing on its own for noteworthiness, but what separates this one from the crowd is that it comes with a big and integrated 8-inch color LCD panel to display system vitals, artwork, animations, and so forth. That's a first for a graphics card. It's not the only first on this model, though.
MSI is also touting what says is the world's first full-copper, full-cover cold plate on a GPU, and even more interesting is the claim that it's the first GPU to reach 1,000W from the factory. Folks, that's a lot off firsts.
It's already factory overclocked with a 2,730MHz boost clock in its default 800W OC mode, which is 13.4% higher than NVIDIA's 2,407MHz reference clock. However, there is a 1,000W Extreme mode (accessible via MSI Center) that pushes it a bit further to 2,775MHz for around a 15.3% gain compared to NVIDIA's reference boost clock.
To tap into all that power, MSI recommends a 1,500W power supply, compared to NVIDIA's 1,000W recommendation for the GeForce RTX 5090 in general. So if you're looking at buying this card, you may have to factor in a new PSU too, depending on what you have. That said, MSI is only making 1,300 of these beastly models.
Cooling is also paramount if pushing that much wattage. To account for that, MSI attached an all-in-one liquid cooler. It features a "hybrid-fin radiator engineered with alternating dense and sparse sections to create deliberate hot-cold exchange zones for maximum thermal efficiency."
Other bits include a custom PCB reinforced with a 3-ounce copper layer, "premium-grade components," and a dual BIOS setup.
MSI points out that it's GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z has already broken a handful of benchmark records, including several top scores in various 3DMark tests.
There's no pricing info available, but with the production run limited to 1,300 units (each individually serialized) and everything it has going for it, we don't expect this to land anywhere near NVIDIA's baseline MSRP.
