It runs from a USB stick before Windows loads and has to run again on every boot.
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The “UEFI pre-driver NVIDIA GPU unlocker,” or nv-uefi-unlocker project, removes Nvidia’s tensor limiter using the community V67 payload with read-back verification. This tricks Nvidia’s signed Booter firmware into opening the write lock on two speed-selector registers, allowing the tensor units to run at full rate. The unlock can now run entirely from a bootable USB drive, on Windows as well as Linux, whereas previously it worked primarily through manually installed Linux modules, with Windows support only experimental. The read-back verification part makes things safer, which was a concern with the experimental builds.
The release ships only scripts and self-built binaries, without any Nvidia firmware in the download. Instead, one of the scripts grabs Nvidia’s public 610.43.03 driver packages, verifies them, then rebuilds the firmware files locally. The project credits Zagitta’s gpu-unlock as its porting source and builds on several other community projects, including the RTX 40 fork gpu-unlock-ada and an earlier Windows EFI tool. Having one tool for the many GeForce owners on Windows should significantly open up the hack to a wider audience. Previously, it was scarier-looking, and project progression is rapid these days with AI tools .
The unlocker runs in a firmware stage before the OS loads Nvidia’s GPU driver, which means there’s no need to flash the card’s video BIOS or to modify the driver; as the FAQ puts it, the unlock doesn’t “persist through power loss.” The trade-off is running it again on every boot. The system must be booted in UEFI mode with Secure Boot either off or set to trust a self-signed EFI. For a game’s anti-cheat that requires Secure Boot, the tool “CANNOT bypass this requirement,” a developer team member relayed on Reddit. RTX 20 owners have to run a bundled script once to switch the Windows Nvidia driver into GSP firmware mode, before restarting.
Nvidia RTX 20, 30, and 40-series GPUs hacked to remove a half-speed AI throttle
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/open-source-usb-tool-unlocks-nvidias-half-speed-gpu-ai-limiter-on-windows-lifts-gpus-fp16-math-performance-up-to-65-percent-uefi-unlocker-covers-rtx-20-30-and-40-series-desktops-and-laptops#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.