Surely not again: Worrying analysis shows Nvidia's RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card may be prone to melting power connectors
Last week I mentioned problems with black screening Nvidia RTX 5080s and 5090s. Now comes much more worrying news of power connector and cable melting problems with the RTX 5090. And not just any RTX 5090, but seemingly a specific and potentially serious problem with Nvidia's own RTX 5090 Founder Edition's board design.
The investigation comes from YouTube channel der8auer, which specialises in detailed technical analysis. Following the emergence of images of a damaged RTX 5090 on Reddit, the card in question along with the power cable used and the PSU, eventually landed with der8auer.
He says the owner who suffered the failure is an experienced enthusiast who was fully aware that the power cable for such a high-end GPU needs to be carefully seated. On inspection, der8auer found all three of the card, the 12VHPWR cable, and the PSU were damaged.
The GPU's power socket had a single pin showing damage and evidence of melting, whereas that same pin was much worse on the PSU side power socket and was accompanied by slight melting to several further pins.
The cable itself was damaged on both ends, but also showed signs of partial melting of its sleeving across its length. So, the question is, what is going on here? User error? A poor quality power cable? Something to do with the Asus Loki 1000 W PSU being used?
der8auer thinks none of the above. Using his own RTX 5090 FE, he loaded the GPU up with Furmark and found some worrying results using his own, higher spec 12V-2x6 cable, which had been in service for six months, and a 1600 W Corsair PSU.
It's worth noting that cables for the closely related 12V-2x6 and 12VHPWR GPU power sockets are supposedly identical. It's only the pin length in the sockets themselves that varies between the two socket types, though some have slightly thicker cables to mitigate some of the thermals.
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