An Indonesian overclocker has destroyed a prototype MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z by using its leaked 2500W "Extreme Performance OC" BIOS. The experiment, conducted with a custom liquid nitrogen setup, resulted in a fractured Blackwell GB202-300-A1 GPU die, likely from a thermal shock event caused by overly aggressive voltage from outdated firmware.

This BIOS was initially shown off by MSI at CES 2026, with the company's $5,090 MSRP card targeting extreme enthusiasts. The existence of such a volatile firmware file, now publicly available, underscores the perilous gap between marketing claims and real-world hardware limits for the ultra-enthusiast segment.

The overclocker, Jonathan Alva, who consulted on the card's development, can continue testing with another prototype and three retail units. The incident serves as a stark, physical warning about the dangers of pushing unreleased, unpolished firmware to its absolute theoretical limits, even with exotic cooling.

The destroyed sample was a pre-production unit, but the event permanently documents the lethal potential of the card's most extreme configuration.