MSI designed the GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z for extreme overclocking, but the most powerful feature of the card remains restricted, as the company limits access to its 2500W XOC BIOS to a small group of professional overclockers, which has now created a growing gap between official support and what regular users can actually use.
Reports show that MSI actively removed leaked versions of this BIOS after they appeared online, which confirms that the company wants to keep tight control over how far users can push the hardware and who gets to access those limits.
Restricted access leads to risky mods
NorthridgeFix recently handled a damaged RTX 5090 Lightning Z that clearly showed signs of hardware modification, where the owner attempted to learn soldering by working directly on the GPU, which resulted in damaged resistor pads near the GPU area and required professional repair.
The same repair note revealed that some users are now trying to bypass MSI’s restriction by adding an extra resistor to unlock the 2500W BIOS, which shows how far enthusiasts are willing to go when official access remains closed.
MSI continues to reserve this BIOS for established overclockers who often receive multiple cards and deliver benchmark results that promote the brand, which explains why retail users cannot access the same tools without taking serious risks.
NorthridgeFix confirmed that the repaired card powered on successfully during early testing, although full validation remains pending, which suggests the repair may hold but still highlights how dangerous these modifications can be.
This situation shows a clear demand for wider access, and if MSI does not address it, more users will continue experimenting with risky hardware changes just to reach the limits of their own hardware.
