ASUS RTX 5090 hits 3.7GHz under liquid nitrogen, breaks 50,000 benchmark barrier

Overclocker SPLAVE hit 3.7GHz on the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 under liquid nitrogen on May 1st, scoring 50060 in 3DMark Port Royal—the first time any hardware has broken 50,000 in that benchmark. The same run set world records in Steel Nomad (19427) and Speed Way (18734).

The card lists at 25350 yuan, but the cooling setup steals the show: a Kingpin ICON EXTREME V5 LN2 pot with custom cold plates. Nitrogen vapor threads through copper tubing while temperature sensors flicker between readings. The contrast between sub-zero coolant and overclocked silicon creates a tension no game cutscene can match.

The record run used a single 16-pin connector (600W), paired with an i9-14900KS and ROG Z790 APEX ENCORE motherboard. Memory clocked at 36Gbps, with 32GB DDR5 keeping the system stable under extreme load. Compared to last-gen flagships, the RTX 5090 shows noticeably more headroom—architectural tweaks push the power ceiling further before thermal limits kick in.

Liquid nitrogen overclocking remains a showcase discipline, impractical for daily use. Air or AIO cooling handles 4K high-refresh gaming without drama. But watching those scores climb while vapor pours off copper—it answers a question most people don't ask: how high can silicon actually go when you strip away every safety margin.