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Peak mobile gaming performance is almost as expensive as it is on desktops, but it doesn't have to be if you're willing to break out the soldering iron.
An enterprising Redditor has managed to add a single resistor to their mobile RTX 4090 gaming laptop, unlocking heaps of extra performance, VideoCardz reports. This "shunt mod" pushes more power through the GPU, allowing it to run much faster than it was originally designed to. Although results are likely to vary from GPU to GPU and laptop to laptop, in this case, the modder unlocked as much as 36% more performance. In some cases, that even beats out modern RTX 5090 versions of the laptop.
Although the RTX 5080 is a killer graphics card—and some of our staff consider it the best of its generation—there's no denying that the performance king is the RTX 5090. That goes for the laptop scene, too. Unlike desktops, though, mobile GPU performance is dependent on how much power and cooling they have access to. That's why this shunt mod of a last-generation Zephyrus M16 with an RTX 4090 aboard had so much extra potential.
Redditor u/thatavidreadertrue posted about their adventures in modifying a Zephyrus M16 4090 GU604VY. They highlighted how the laptop was a good candidate for the mod since it features strong power phases and cooling to handle over 150W of GPU power and a toasty CPU. To augment that cooling, though, they repasted the CPU and GPU with a PTM 7950 thermal pad and updated the VRM thermal putty with a better version for improved temperatures. With that in place, the real modding could begin.
They added a single 1mOhm resistor on top of the 5mOhm shunt resistor at the back of the motherboard, effectively telling the GPU that it wasn't receiving as much power as it needed. The laptop then gave it more power to compensate, increasing its power draw by around 40-45W in most tests. Although that does mean higher energy costs and greater heat output, the performance results speak for themselves.
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