MSI has decided to 'completely ignore the concepts of balance in favour of extremes' for its latest RTX 5090 variant, and I can't help but admire it

There’s something to be said for throwing moderation out the window and going all in on excess. MSI seems to agree, as it’s just taken the wraps off the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z, a truly monstrous, water cooled, 8-inch screen emblazoned GPU that makes the regular RTX 5090 look downright pedestrian.

It’s been designed to ‘completely ignore the concepts of balance in favour of extremes’, according to the launch presentation I just attended, and boy howdy has MSI refused to do things by halves. Well, we are in Vegas, after all.

For a start, there’s an 8-inch display mounted to the card itself, which has eschewed a regular air cooler for an external 360 mm radiator with a three fan cooling arrangement. It’s fed by a newly-designed pump that MSI says delivers 71% increased flow over previous GPU pump iterations, which is in turn attached to a full copper, full cover cold plate arrangement designed to keep things frosty. With a carbon fibre plate on the back, naturally.

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(Image credit: Future)

There’s also a 2500 W+ BIOS for “extreme overclockers” only, which I imagine is reserved for those types with a spare canister of liquid nitrogen hanging around. Those of us that use the regular modes, however, will be treated to a top stock boost clock of 2,775 MHz, around 365 MHz more than most RTX 5090s.

Should you wish to push the card further (and let’s face it, there wouldn’t be much point buying it if you didn’t), intrepid overclockers will be able to tweak it to its maximum potential via the Lightning Hub web app, or with an app on your phone. The truly enthusiastic will also be able to adjust the voltages with some handy dedicated multimeter “V-check” connections.

Oh, and you can switch the BIOS between the 1000 W and 800 W versions with an included keyring. It looks like a lightning bolt, and… well, I can’t help but feel it’s a bit tacky. Still, excess is excess. How do you switch BIOS modes on your card, anyway? A switch at best? Pah. Check out my dangling plastic tat.

Anyway, this particular RTX 5090 is the first MSI GPU to use the Lightning moniker since an RTX 2080 Ti variant many moons ago, and the company seems very excited to bring the branding back. The launch presentation was full of CGI jet fighters, overwrought metaphors of extreme performance, and several memorable quotes. My favourite?

“Madness shaped our engineering”. Indeed.

(Image credit: Future)

Still, this GPU really does look to be an impressive achievement of extreme engineering over common sense. Every bell and whistle seems to have been throughly polished, even down to the MOSFETs and chokes, which have been “hand selected” for the very best performance. It also emerges from its box like an aerospace component, which, let’s face it, is just freaking cool.

How much? No idea. What I do know, however, is that MSI is only making 1300 of them, and considers each card to be a collectors model. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on potential pricing here, but let me be the first to say: I doubt it will be anything close to cheap.

But hey, that’s compromise talk. The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z is all about the extremes, dude. And while I’m always a fan of good value, I can’t help but salute a well-intentioned punt at the ultra-enthusiast market. Got some serious cash to flash? May I present this, the silly-yet-fabulous GPU of your dreams. Or the Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Dhahab OC Edition. One of the two, anyway.