NVIDIA's RTX 5090 FE Power Connectors Are Reportedly Melting

Just like the issues seen with NVIDIA's RTX 4090 two years ago, the first report from an owner of the new RTX 5090 Founders Edition has emerged, describing melted power connectors and damage to their power supply. A Reddit user ivan6953, who upgraded from an RTX 4090 to an RTX 5090 FE, noticed a "burning smell" while playing Battlefield 5. After shutting down their PC, they discovered damage to the power connector, with burnt plastic visible at both the PSU end and the connection to the GPU.

Here's what it looked like:

NVIDIA first introduced the 12VHPWR power connector with its RTX 40-series GPUs to handle higher power demands, and, following initial reports of RTX 4090 connectors melting, the connector was updated to the 12V-2x6 version, which features shorter sensing pins and longer conductor terminals for improved reliability. However, it's not a completely new cable. Although it's obvious to blame a third-party connector in ivan6953's case, the cable manufacturer MODDIY responded to the thread, ruling out the possibility of a defective cable or a manufacturing error.

Following this incident, YouTuber der8auer obtained the damaged graphics card, power cable, and PSU for investigation. Upon closer inspection, he observed clear signs of overheating, with plastic around the pins breaking off when the cable was removed.

Using his own RTX 5090 Founders Edition with a higher-spec 12V-2x6 cable, der8auer found concerning results that pointed to a serious issue with the power delivery system. After just four minutes, two of the 12V cables reached over 100 degrees Celsius, which was clearly too high, and one of the cables was carrying much more current than the others.

However, der8auer believes that user error on the part of both himself and ivan6953 is not to blame, as the cable was properly connected. Instead, he suspects the problem may lie with the current distribution of RTX 5090 Founders Edition models.

NVIDIA has yet to provide an official response to this, so stay tuned and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.