Nvidia RTX 3090 performance nearly doubles with free GPU unlock, but there's a catch

Nvidia’s six-year-old GeForce RTX 3090 apparently has some untapped computing potential. A new open-source project called gpu-unlock, developed by GitHub user Zagitta, can reportedly deliver double-digit improvements in certain Tensor Core workloads without requiring hardware modifications or a patched Nvidia driver.

The project targets an instruction-issue rate limitation affecting FP16 and BF16 Tensor Core operations with FP32 accumulation on Ampere-based GeForce cards. According to the developer, the affected operations can run at roughly half the rate available on professional Nvidia GPUs. The unlock changes hardware speed-selection registers to remove that restriction.

Interestingly, the technique builds upon earlier research used to unlock capabilities on Nvidia CMP mining GPUs. Zagitta’s implementation uses a Linux kernel module that executes before Nvidia’s graphics driver loads, modifies the relevant registers and resets the GPU before handing control back to the unmodified driver. As a result, it does not require permanently flashing the card’s VBIOS or modified firmware.

In one community compatibility report, an RTX 3090 achieved 129.6 TFLOPS in BF16 matrix multiplication, up from 77.5 TFLOPS. TF32 performance increased from 40.2 to 69.8 TFLOPS. Its sibling, the RTX 3090 Ti, saw BF16 throughput jump from 87.5 to 157.4 TFLOPS.

That said, the gains are very workload-dependent. Another RTX 3090 user reported a 16% improvement in long-context prompt processing during local LLM inference, while token generation speeds remained practically unchanged. Separately, ComfyUI testing on an RTX 3090 Ti demonstrated roughly 47–59% higher throughput across several BF16-heavy image-generation workloads.

But what about gaming? Nvidia’s DLSS technology also uses Tensor Cores, raising the possibility that certain AI-assisted rendering operations could benefit. Unfortunately, no independently verified gaming benchmarks have established any FPS improvements. For now, the original project is limited to Linux, although a separate experimental Windows port has demonstrated an unlocked RTX 3090 successfully booting into Windows on one specific system.

The unlock also remains experimental, so installing it on a primary gaming PC carries risks. Nevertheless, the possibility of extracting substantially more computing performance from ageing RTX 30-series hardware without purchasing a new GPU is intriguing if you’re feeling adventurous. 

Anil Ganti - Senior Tech Writer - 3147 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2019

I've been an avid PC gamer since the age of 8. My passion for gaming eventually pushed me towards general tech, and I got my first writing gig at the age of 19. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and have worked in the manufacturing industry and a few other publications like Wccftech before joining Notebookcheck in November 2019. I cover a variety of topics including smartphones, gaming, and computer hardware.