Lower than two weeks after its launch, the primary report of a melting Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has surfaced on-line. Whereas a third-party energy cable was used, it’s unclear proper now what triggered the fault, with the graphics card, energy provide, and GPU energy cable all affected by harm.
It’s unlucky timing, nevertheless, coming simply weeks after Nvidia made claims concerning the RTX 5090 energy connection, saying that it “didn’t anticipate” a repeat of points with melting RTX 4090 playing cards to reoccur with the RTX 50-series. That’s regardless of the brand new finest graphics card available on the market drawing much more energy than the RTX 4090 it replaces, with a 125W energy draw enhance in comparison with the older card.
This unlucky incident was shared in a Reddit put up within the r/nvidia subreddit, the place ivan6953 shared their story. The Redditor had simply upgraded from an RTX 4090 Founders Version to the RTX 5090 FE, and in accordance with them, the cable was “securely mounted” into each the GPU and PSU at each ends.
After noticing a “burning scent” whereas enjoying Battlefield V, and claiming the ability draw on the time of the incident was round 500-525W, ivan6953 powered down the PC to examine the harm. The pictures shared on Reddit present harm to each the RTX 5090’s energy connector and the socket on the Asus ROG Loki energy provide, together with a third-party Moddiy cable with a melted connector and wiring. The Redditor claims that the identical cable powered their RTX 4090 with out concern for 2 years previous to this incident.
Sadly, that is removed from the primary Nvidia graphics card to have suffered from this concern. Points with melting RTX 4090 playing cards pressured the corporate to make modifications to the 12VHPWR connector design on their top-spec GPUs, altering the form and size of a number of the socket pins to extend the reliability of the connection, leaving the cable design intact.
Ivan6953 isn’t blaming Nvidia for this one, no less than indirectly. With the harm seemingly heaviest on the ability provide finish, they’re chalking this as much as an issue with the cable or energy provide, reasonably than with the RTX 5090 itself, though it’s unclear at the moment what actually triggered the fault and what part deserves the blame. Nonetheless, with these sorts of excessive energy calls for and with loads of third-party cables available on the market, it’s unlikely that this would be the final RTX 5090 to see a meltdown through the product’s lifetime.
The Redditor didn’t use an official cable right here, so whereas they’ve filed a guaranty declare with each Nvidia and Asus for his or her broken {hardware}, they aren’t assured of success. Whereas it’s too late for ivan6953, in case you’re spending $1,999 (or extra) on a top-spec GPU, we’d suggest utilizing both an acceptable 16-pin GPU energy cable made by your PSU producer in your PSU, or utilizing the official Nvidia energy cable adapter equipped together with your card to attach your GPU to your PSU with 4 8-pin PCIe energy connectors as an alternative. If nothing else, it will assist make sure you’ve acquired one of the best probability of a declare below your current guarantee protection.
Dangerous luck for ivan6953, and we hope he will get himself a brand new RTX 5090 quickly, though it is perhaps difficult if he has to purchase a substitute himself. After a less-than-ideal launch, RTX 5090 inventory has been virtually unimaginable to search out. For those who’re eager to get your palms on one, be sure that to take a look at our the place to purchase 5090 inventory information for day by day retailer updates, though you’ll must be fast, as we anticipate any inventory that seems to expire rapidly.
You may also try our RTX 5090 evaluate for our ideas on this brand-new, top-spec Nvidia card. Don’t overlook to additionally comply with us on Google Information for day by day PC {hardware} information, evaluations, and guides, and be part of our group Discord to remain within the know.
