An open-source UEFI tool, nv-uefi-unlocker, lifts the tensor rate cap on Nvidia RTX 20, 30, and 40-series GPUs under Windows.

A new open-source UEFI tool boots from USB and unlocks significant extra tensor performance on RTX 20-, 30-, and 40-series desktop and laptop GPUs. It makes the half-speed AI throttle hack much easier to try on Windows. No VBIOS flash or patched driver is needed. The tool runs from a FAT32 stick before the Nvidia driver loads at each boot. The developer's own laptop RTX 4060 reached 65% higher FP16 math.

The "UEFI pre-driver NVIDIA GPU unlocker," or nv-uefi-unlocker, removes Nvidia's tensor limiter using the community V67 payload, with read-back verification. It 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. Previously, it worked primarily through manually installed Linux modules, and Windows support was experimental. The read-back verification makes the process safer, which was a concern with the earlier experimental builds.

The release includes only scripts and self-built binaries, with no Nvidia firmware in the download. Instead, one of the scripts downloads Nvidia's public 610.43.03 driver packages, verifies them, and 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. A single tool for the many GeForce owners on Windows should significantly widen the audience for the hack. Previously the process looked far more intimidating, and the project is moving quickly these days with the help of AI tools.

To use it, users download the release, run the script, and copy the rebuilt files and a BOOTX64.EFI for booting onto a FAT32-formatted USB stick. The unlocker can then be launched from a one-time boot menu by pressing the spacebar within 30 seconds to confirm. Once complete, control passes to the respective OS loader.

The unlocker runs in a firmware stage before the OS loads Nvidia's GPU driver. This means there is no need to flash the card's video BIOS or modify the driver. As the FAQ puts it, the unlock doesn't "persist through power loss." The trade-off is that it must be run 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 said on Reddit. RTX 20-series owners must run a bundled script once to switch the Windows Nvidia driver into GSP firmware mode, then restart.

Laptop GPUs were already supported by earlier projects. This release, however, includes a laptop GPU among the developer's own test cards, and laptop results are logged card by card. On laptops, the discrete Nvidia GPU must be powered at entry, so dGPU-only or MUX mode is recommended. On Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, runtime power management can power down the GPU when idle and silently erase the unlock. The English FAQ covers workarounds for this and provides instructions and guidelines for other situations.

Compatibility otherwise breaks down as follows. RTX 20-series support is listed as "fully compatible; some models have known issues." RTX 30-series cards are "fully compatible," and RTX 40-series cards are "fully compatible on laptops and desktops." The GTX 16 is "theoretically compatible," with verification pending. Other cards, including pre-Turing GPUs, the GA100, and RTX 50-series cards, are unsupported. The project routes support by chip family, so a card being covered does not mean that specific card has been tested. Cards verified through the tool's own Windows results are listed below.

**Which GeForce cards nv-uefi-unlocker has run on**

| Generation | Confirmed working on Windows | Known problems or untested |

|---|---|---|

| RTX 20 (Turing) | RTX 2070, RTX 2060 Super | RTX 2080, 2080 Ti and 2080 Super fail at boot or handoff; GTX 16 untested; needs GSP firmware mode and a restart first |

| RTX 30 (Ampere) | RTX 3080 (incl. LHR), 3060 Ti, 3060 12GB, 3080 Ti Laptop, 3070 Laptop | RTX 3050 untested; persistence on Thunderbolt eGPUs not guaranteed |

| RTX 40 (Ada Lovelace) | RTX 4090, 4080, 4070 Ti Super, 4070 Super, 4070, 4060 Ti 8GB and 16GB, 4060 Laptop, 4050 Laptop | RTX 4070 Laptop untested |

| RTX 50 (Blackwell) | None | Not supported |

Results compare each card before and after the unlock on the same test. Because the tests differ from row to row, the figures should not be compared across cards.

**Reported Windows results with nv-uefi-unlocker (FP32 accumulate)**

| Card | Test | Stock (TFLOPS) | Unlocked (TFLOPS) | Gain | Who measured |

|---|---|---|---|---|---|

| RTX 2070 | FP16 matrix multiply | 36 | 60–63 | +67–75% | Developer |

| RTX 3060 12GB | FP16 matrix multiply, 4096 | 25.37 | 45.79 | 1.80x | Owner report |

| RTX 3070 Laptop | FP16 matrix multiply, 8192 | 35.43 | 56.04 | 1.58x | Owner report |

| RTX 4060 Laptop | FP16 matrix multiply | 29.89 | 49.33 | 1.65x | Developer |

| RTX 4080 | BF16 matrix multiply, 4096 | 100.37 | 192.18 | 1.91x | Owner report |

| RTX 4090 | FP16 matrix multiply, 4096 | 118.42 | 171.52 | 1.45x (power-limited) | Owner report |

The developer's own desktop RTX 2070 went from about 34 TFLOPS in FP16 matrix multiply at size 8192 to around 62 TFLOPS in the accompanying screenshots.

Caveats remain. Zagitta, whose gpu-unlock started the GeForce unlocks, now says in its FAQ: "I don't run windows and don't plan to maintain it." It points Windows users to a separate port and warns them to be careful with unofficial Windows installers. Results are also contingent on power and thermal limits. The new project says it can be combined with the nvoc power-limit unlock, but warns that this "can exceed factory power and thermal envelopes." A per-card ROM hash check, which the project's own safety rules require, is not yet built. Persistence on Thunderbolt eGPUs "is not guaranteed."

Other cards, including the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, are under review, with no dates promised. The pro-card tensor feature can now be unlocked for many GPUs, and as simply as using a USB boot drive. A boot-from-disk toggle that the team says is in development should make it easier still. RTX 50-series owners will have to wait, as the team is still working to crack those cards, which have "a lot more security" than it anticipated.