HYDRA raises RTX 50 GDDR7 limit to 36 Gbps and Power Limit to 125%
1usmus, also known as Yuri Bubliy, is already well known in the overclocking community for developing several Ryzen tuning tools. These include DRAM Calculator for Ryzen and ClockTuner for Ryzen (CTR), with HYDRA later expanding his work into CPU and GPU tuning. The GPU side seems to be getting more attention recently.
According to the author, HYDRA which is primarly an OC tool, is adding unlocked GDDR7 overclocking and Power Limit controls for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards. The new functionality raises the software limits beyond those currently exposed by standard GPU tuning tools. Just bear in mind I have not tested this, but Yuri provided videos showing that it works.
The first release allows GDDR7 memory speeds of up to 36 Gbps and Power Limit adjustment up to 125% . The feature is designed to work with RTX 50 series cards from any board partner. RTX PRO 6000 support is also available experimentally.
RTX 5090 reaches 2.3 TB/s memory bandwidth
Current software limits differ depending on the GPU. The RTX 5090, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5070, RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 are normally limited to a maximum reported memory speed of 34 Gbps. The RTX 5080 already allows adjustment up to 36 Gbps, while the RTX PRO 6000 is currently limited to 28 Gbps.
| Project Hydra Blackwell Memory Unlock | ||
|---|---|---|
| GPU | Without HYDRA | With HYDRA |
| GeForce RTX 5090 | 28-34 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
| GeForce RTX 5080 | 30-36 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
| GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | 28-34 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
| GeForce RTX 5070 | 28-34 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | 28-34 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
| GeForce RTX 5060 | 28-34 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
| RTX PRO 6000 | 28 Gbps | Up to 36 Gbps |
A demonstration using an ASUS ROG Astral LC GeForce RTX 5090 shows the card running its GDDR7 memory at 36 Gbps. With its 512-bit memory interface, this corresponds to 2.304 TB/s of theoretical memory bandwidth. The same card reportedly draws around 640W compared with its 600W stock limit, while HYDRA was configured to a 105% Power Limit for the test.
Power Limit can be raised to 125%
Memory thing aside, most power users may find more the new power tuning more useful for OC. Many RTX 50 cards expose a maximum Power Limit of 100% through conventional tuning software, including some models with larger VRMs and cooling systems. HYDRA will allow this value to be raised as high as 125%, although the actual usable range will still depend on the graphics card.
RTX-TUNER is receiving several related changes. Curve modification restrictions have been removed, second-generation MSVDD and NVVDD Rail Offsets have been added for XOC use, and direct XBAR offset control is now supported. This is the same tuning feature we discussed in the previous article .
The developer stresses that the feature does not require VBIOS flashing, a modified NVIDIA driver or a security exploit. The higher limits are implemented through HYDRA itself.
It goes without saying that this is not a free feature, at least not initially. There is still hope that it may eventually become available to all users in some form. However, we do not encourage anyone to tune their GPU this way.
Graphics cards are too valuable right now to put them at risk with any OC tool. But if you understand the risks and simply want to extract more performance from a well-cooled GPU, though, this may be worth a try.
Source:
I’m back—and every week brings something special.🙃
Today, I’m excited to introduce an exclusive HYDRA capability: unlocked VRAM overclocking and Power Limit control for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5000 Series graphics cards.
More info: https://t.co/trqvEUQhgf pic.twitter.com/2duo8dxdAi
— 1usmus 🇺🇦 (@1usmus) August 17, 2026
