Ah shit, here we go again. Two owners of Nvidia’s new RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPUs have reported melted power connectors and damage to their PSUs. The images look identical to reports of RTX 4090 power cables burning or melting from two years ago. Nvidia blamed the issue on people not properly plugging the 12VHPWR power connection in fully and the PCI standards body blamed Nvidia.
A Reddit poster upgraded from an RTX 4090 to an RTX 5090 and noticed “a burning smell playing Battlefield 5,” before turning off their PC and finding the damage. The images show burnt plastic at both the PSU end of the power connector and the part that connects directly to the GPU. The cable is one from MODDIY, a popular manufacturer of custom cables, and the poster claims it was “securely fastened and clicked on both sides (GPU and PSU).”
Damage to a PSU and the 12VHPWR power connector. | Image: El Chapuzas Infomatico‘ data-portal-copyright=’Image: El Chapuzas Infomatico‘>
While Intel and AMD are both members of the PCI-SIG group that helped develop the 12VHPWR power connector, only Nvidia has adopted the standard so far. Even AMD’s upcoming Radeon RX 9070-series are using existing 8-pin PCIe connections instead. AMD even suggested the 12VHPWR connector was a fire hazard in late 2022, when the company’s gaming marketing director Sasa Marinkovic tweeted “Stay safe this holiday season” alongside a picture of 8-pin connectors.
12VHPWR has been branded a “dumpster fire,” thanks to design oversights that make it relatively easy for end users to not properly connect the cable securely. Cablemod was also forced to recall its 12VHPWR GPU power adapters last year after reports of melted adapters.
We’ve reached out to Nvidia to comment on these latest reports of RTX 5090 power connector issues, but the company did not respond in time for publication.