By Geeks enjoy exploring the inner workings of their hardware, either physically or through software, to extract a bit more power from it. Generally speaking, a small amount of mild overclocking is harmless, and manufacturers actually anticipate it to some extent. For laptops with discrete Nvidia RTX graphics cards, however, an unconventional approach is incredibly potent—and risky.
The term “shunt mod” refers to a technique that allows a graphics card to operate at a power input far higher than its rated operating voltage. Shunt modding can significantly increase the power entering the card, but it is a difficult, physical procedure that requires active soldering on the GPU itself. This can increase the power input from a specified maximum of 150–175 watts to up to 250 watts for some of the most potent RTX laptop GPUs, with a comparable performance drop.
What makes this feasible, and how? It’s not simple. The actual graphics chips found on desktop cards, which are rated for significantly higher wattage inputs, are also included in some laptops with RTX 4090, 5080, and 5080 discrete GPUs. The most flawlessly made chips are employed in the most potent desktop cards due to the “binning” process that occurs during the manufacturing of these chips, while the chips that didn’t quite win the “silicon lottery” may be used in laptops. To put it briefly, the CPUs should — should — be able to take a lot greater watt input than they usually receive from a laptop design that is more constrained and uses less battery.
GizmoSlipTech, a specialist in the nuances of desktop and laptop GPUs, has compiled some information from enthusiasts and professionals who have tried this intricate method to increase the amount of energy entering laptops with RTX 5080 and 5090 graphics cards (via VideoCardz.com). The outcomes are striking. When an RTX 5090 laptop was configured to run at 250 watts, the 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark increased by an astounding 41%. Although the in-game results are not as impressive, Cyberpunk 2077’s improvement of over 20% is still impressive.
However, you might want to pause and consider your options before reaching for a screwdriver. Anyone who hasn’t completed some amazing, entry-level electronics projects should avoid attempting the kind of deep hardware modifications we’re discussing here. This goes well beyond the fundamental abilities needed to assemble a desktop computer or even fix a laptop. The warranty may be voided if you simply crack open your laptop to get at the discrete graphics card, but the entire technique involves soldering capacitors and then changing the firmware to increase the CPU’s temperature.
To put it briefly, doing this could cause your gaming laptop to melt. And you may wave goodbye to any warranty support if it does. I imagine that any technician who notices this alteration will immediately declare the laptop out of warranty owing to user modification, even if anything entirely unrelated to your GPU were to fail.
Additionally, they are some of the priciest and most potent gaming laptops on the market at the moment. In essence, using thousands of dollars’ worth of hardware to do a shunt mod is gambling with performance. A pleasant boost, but even if you have the technical know-how to get it, I don’t think it’s worth the risk.
However, the fact that this change is feasible and seems to be becoming more and more popular among the most courageous users suggests that these separate laptop cards may have a lot more power than they are currently using. Certain laptop manufacturers have indeed secretly made such modifications to their gaming versions (and then had to publish a patch to fix it). In order to improve performance, GizmoSlipTech suggests that Nvidia raise the power restrictions for a few laptops using the newest thermal management technology.
