Leaked ASUS RTX 5090 XOC BIOS at 2000W: risks and gains

The ASUS RTX 5090 is back in the spotlight after a mention on Overclock.net of an XOC BIOS with a power cap of up to 2000 W. A user going by Carillo posted a file titled 5090 Asus XOC; discussion suggests it lifts the ceiling to 2 kW and bumps voltage to 1.15 V—well above what official firmware allows for GB202-based cards. It’s not a fresh build, though: we’re talking about an older XOC BIOS dated 2024.

These XOC firmware images aren’t homebrew mods but factory builds that must pass NVIDIA security checks and be signed before drivers will load them. Normally, only professional overclockers, partner OC teams and select motherboard makers get access. Even so, such files do leak into the wild from time to time.

In practice, the picture is less glamorous than the theoretical headroom. RTX 5090 owners report that even with this BIOS their cards can’t push past roughly 1200 W—board layouts and standard controllers still draw the line. On top of that, the XOC build pins voltage at 1.15 V even when the software slider is set to zero, which inflates power draw in trivial scenes, like game menus, unless you manually tune the VF curve.

Earlier, YouTuber JayzTwoCents tried an Astral RTX 5090D XOC BIOS with a 1600 W limit on a GIGABYTE RTX 5090 AORUS Master. The card did hit the 1600 W ceiling, and overclocking the GPU and memory lifted 3DMark Port Royal performance by about 10%. The trade-off was clear: due to controller-scheme incompatibility, one of the fans stopped working.

Given those pitfalls, more enthusiasts are gravitating to an alternative—the ASUS ROG Matrix BIOS. Built for the Matrix RTX 5090 priced around $4,000, it has already been applied successfully to graphics cards from MSI, PNY, GIGABYTE and others. It tends to deliver higher clocks and a tangible FPS bump without resorting to extreme power targets.

At this point, the leaked 2000 W ASUS XOC BIOS looks more like a tool for benchmarking and probing voltage scaling than firmware for day-to-day use. It can help professionals gauge the overclocking potential of a specific GPU sample, but for most RTX 5090 owners, the Matrix BIOS—or simply the stock firmware—remains the safer, more sensible choice.

Of course, flashing nonstandard BIOS images always carries risk. The RTX 5090 is already one of the most powerful graphics cards on the market, and tinkering with firmware can easily void the warranty. At the very least, it’s wise to wait until that coverage runs out.