Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 breaks four world records — Pushed beyond 3.45 GHz with 35 Gbps VRAM

Astral RTX 5090
(Image credit: Asus)

The Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 has been used to successfully break six overclocking records, divided across four world records and two first place positions in the single GPU environment. Being one of the highest-end variants, all it took was proper cooling for the GPU to blaze past 3.4 GHz with the GDDR7 memory at impressive 35 Gbps speeds, north of what Tony Yu managed to achieve with his ROG Astral RTX 5090D.

RTX 5090 performance records

(Image credit: Asus ROG)

These latest RTX 5090 overclocking endeavors were spearheaded by Safedisk, Asus' in-house extreme overclocker from South Korea. A handful of test setups were used for these benchmarks, with systems featuring CPUs including the i9-14900KF, the Ryzen 9 9950X, and even a 96-core Threadripper PRO 7995WX. In certain scenarios, the GPU was air-cooled; in others, it was liquid-cooled.

The ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC is rated at a boost clock of 2.58 GHz out of the box. This number is quite conservative for Nvidia GPUs. Even the dual-slot RTX 5090 FE with a 2.4 GHz boost clock, readily hovered between 2.65 GHz and 2.8 GHz across a geometric mean of 22 games in our testing. Of course, the Astral is noticeably bulkier, wielding a quad-slot design and phase-change thermal pads for improved temperatures and greater overclocking headroom.

Safedisk handily broke four world records in Port Royal, Fire Strike Extreme, and Unigine Superposition at 1080p and 8K resolutions. With varying setups, the ROG Astral RTX 5090 maintained steady clocks at 3 GHz with air cooling. In Time Spy Extreme and GPUPI, where results are limited to single-GPU setups to prevent the advantages of multiple GPUs, the ROG Astral RTX 5090 stands as the fastest. Mounted with a liquid cooling pot, overclocking this GPU pushed it past 3.45 GHz with the memory speeds coming in at an impressive 35 Gbps (17.5 GHz).

Beyond overclocking, Asus also highlighted the advantages of its connector design. Recently, it came to light that RTX 50 and RTX 40 GPUs based on Nvidia's reference design cannot tell if one of the pins is drawing excessive current. If the cable isn't inserted properly or if there's an internal break, all the current may flow through a single pin, causing it to melt and there's no way to know until after the fact.

Asus' design for the ROG Astral RTX 5090 and ROG Matrix RTX 4090 includes an additional group of shunt resistors, allowing per-pin current detection through software. This can help detect anomalies in power distribution, and notify the user if the cable needs to be reseated. In fact, a Chinese user has been working on something similar and plans to make their design open-source in the future.

Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer

Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

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  • Dr3ams
    That's nice. Where I live, that GPU costs 3600.- Euros. Which is more than my entire PC rig and costs more than what I paid for my 2002 Mazda 626 station wagon.

    I'll never be able to afford it, so I actually don't give a hoot what it can do
    Reply
  • bolweval
    I could afford it, but I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of spending that much money on a video card. Not to mention the guilt my wife would be reminding me to feel.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    They also burn in flammes...

    https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ASTRAL-RTX-5090-Burnt.png
    Reply
  • kyzarvs
    Dr3ams said:
    That's nice. Where I live, that GPU costs 3600.- Euros. Which is more than my entire PC rig and costs more than what I paid for my 2002 Mazda 626 station wagon.

    I'll never be able to afford it, so I actually don't give a hoot what it can do
    I can afford one - but I'll never buy one.

    Gaming does not exist in a vacuum - sooner or later the prices get so nuts that people find other things to spend their moolah on. It's got to the point where it competes with (for me) things that are a lot more interesting. Would I prefer a 2 week holiday this September, or prettier pew-pews? Well, I've got that holiday booked, so I think that's that one answered.

    I earn a very good wage, but I'm odd and much prefer older cars, so your example is also valid to me - my wife's 2009 C-Class wagon is lovely, in fantastic condition and worth less than a 5090 - I just have no freakin' interest in spending that much money on a GPU.
    Reply
  • VizzieTheViz
    kyzarvs said:
    I can afford one - but I'll never buy one.

    Gaming does not exist in a vacuum - sooner or later the prices get so nuts that people find other things to spend their moolah on. It's got to the point where it competes with (for me) things that are a lot more interesting. Would I prefer a 2 week holiday this September, or prettier pew-pews? Well, I've got that holiday booked, so I think that's that one answered.

    I earn a very good wage, but I'm odd and much prefer older cars, so your example is also valid to me - my wife's 2009 C-Class wagon is lovely, in fantastic condition and worth less than a 5090 - I just have no freakin' interest in spending that much money on a GPU.
    100% (or maybe 99% as I like newer cars too).

    This thing isn’t even for sale anywhere and even if it were I’m not spending that kind of money on something I only use for gaming a few hours a week if I’m lucky. Maybe if it’s been msrp id have gotten one, but msrp +1500 euros - I’ll pass thanks.
    Reply