Recently, we noticed a trend at HWBot, a site that tracks CPU/GPU overclocking records, where the China-exclusive RTX 5090D now commands the top spots across various single-GPU world records. This extends to the entire 3DMark suite, including Port Royal, Vantage Extreme, Time Spy Extreme, and Fire Strike Extreme. Why isn't a fully-featured RTX 5090 dominating the top of these tables? Well, the consistent element we see is the use of the RTX 5090D HOF OC Lab edition, an unannounced GPU from Galax that is known to feature a dual 16-pin design for elevated TGPs.
These Hall Of Fame edition GPUs offer a sophisticated power delivery system with customized vBIOS that can often be configured to deliver over 1,000W of power without board customizations. The PCBs of these GPUs can also be equipped with an LN2/Liquid Helium pot for extreme overclocking, which is probably the method employed by OGS and Rauf, both of whom are renowned overclockers, to achieve these results.
Across the handful of results we surveyed, the RTX 5090D leads the charts when limited to single-GPU setups. Multi-GPU systems featuring several workstation/server-grade GPUs can potentially achieve higher overall scores, so we are not considering those configurations. Either way, despite the firmware limiting its AI TOPS by nearly 30%, the RTX 5090D ironically bests its global counterpart in the vast majority of benchmarks.
The top two contenders, Rauf and OGS, are actively fighting for the number-one spot, though OGS holds a narrow lead in most test results. The RTX 5090D saw a peak clock speed of 3.53 GHz in Port Royal with one of OGS' test benches, most of which were equipped with a hefty 1500W/1600W power supply. While our test data is limited to games rather than synthetic/stress tests, the RTX 5090 Founders Edition, for context, averages 2.7 GHz - 2.8 GHz in the majority of titles.
Galax has not introduced a global RTX 5090 non-D Hall Of Fame model, which explains why its Dragon counterpart reigns supreme in HWBot. As a matter of fact, there is currently no dual 16-pin RTX 5090 offering, perhaps influenced by the resurgence of melting GPU connector cases, something Nvidia claimed would be fixed with Blackwell.
There likely aren't many GB202 chips in supply, even for AIBs, explained by the existing supply constraints. Even if such a variant emerges, R&D, manufacturing, and chip costs, exacerbated by shortages, would likely drive street prices extremely high. It's worth noting that, apart from a few teasers, Galax has yet to formally introduce the 5090D HOF, and the card isn't even featured on their website. As long as these GPUs stay limited or until a global variant is introduced, the leaderboard probably won't change all that much.
