The first reports of overheating and melting of power connectors on the new flagship NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics cards have appeared online. The published images of the damaged connectors are reminiscent of similar cases recorded during the launch of the RTX 4090 two years ago. This was reported by The Verge.
One Reddit user who replaced his RTX 4090 with an RTX 5090 reported that he smelled "a burning smell while playing Battlefield 5". He then turned off the computer and found a damaged power connector.
The published images show burnt plastic on both the end of the power connector and the connector that connects to the video card. The cable used belongs to MODDIY, a well-known manufacturer of specialized cables. The owner of the RTX 5090 assures us that the cable was "securely fastened and locked on both sides" (both at the GPU and PSU).
Although we can assume that the problem is related to the MODDIY cable. However, the Spanish YouTuber Toro Tocho encountered a similar case of overheating and melting cables on his RTX 5090 Founders Edition. In his case, the damage affected both the connector on the video card and the power supply, and he used a cable from the official PSU manufacturer, FSP. Also, the plastic in the PCIe 5.0 power connector on the power supply melted.
NVIDIA first introduced the 12VHPWR power connector with its RTX 40 series graphics cards. After numerous meltdowns of RTX 4090 connectors, the PCI-SIG, the organization responsible for standardizing this connector, updated it to the 12V-2x6 version. The new standard has shorter pins and special markings for a more convenient and secure connection. However, despite these changes, cases of overheating and melting of connectors still continue to be recorded.