GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Power Connector Melted When Using Third-Party Power Cable

One Reddit user shared images of a reference version of the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card with a melted power connector. The owner of the card immediately clarified that he used a non-original power cable from the power supply unit or the official adapter included with the graphics card to connect the GPU.

Image source: ivan6953 / Reddit

According to the user, he used a Moddiy power cable to connect the video card, which complies with the ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 power standards, and is certified to transfer up to 600 W of power to the video card. The cable manufacturer itself claims that this is a cable of the updated 12V-2×6 standard, which replaced the backward-compatible 12VHPWR.

The owner of the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition reported that he smelled a burning smell coming from the system unit while playing Battlefield 5. According to him, during the gaming session, the video card’s power consumption was about 500-520 W. He immediately turned off the computer, but by that point the damage had already been done. And not only to the video card’s power connector, but also to the power supply connector. The latter began to look like this:

The 12V-2×6 power connector on the Asus ROG Loki power supply. Image source: ivan6953 / Reddit

The owner of the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition claims that the connectors on both ends of the power cable were fully inserted. And when connecting the cable to the graphics card connector, he made sure there was a click, which indicates that the connector was properly connected to the connector. He added that he had previously used the same power cable with the reference version of the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition.

Image source: ivan6953 / Reddit

There are several possible explanations for this incident. For example, the third-party power cable does not fully comply with the manufacturer’s stated specifications, or the owner of the card did not fully insert the connector into the video card (and PSU) power connector, despite his statements.

Image source: ivan6953 / Reddit

As VideoCardz writes, while the availability of the GeForce RTX 5090 is currently very limited, there have been no reports of melted power connectors on the official adapters that come with these cards. The reference version of the GeForce RTX 5090 comes with an updated 12V-2×6 power adapter. It is physically longer and more flexible than the one that officially came with the previous series of cards. In addition, the power connector itself on the reference GeForce RTX 5090 is located at an angle, which is designed to reduce pressure on the cable, for example, when installing the video card in a tight computer case.

With reference to the El Chapuas Informatico website, the VideoCardz portal also reports another case of damage to the power connector. However, in this case, only the connector (and the wire connector) on the power supply side was damaged. Fortunately, the power connector on the video card itself was not damaged. The owner of the card and the power supply admits that the incident could have been caused by improper connection and wear of the connector.

A burnt PSU connector while testing the GeForce RTX 5090. Image source: El Chapuas Informatico / Toro Tocho

This is the third known case of power connector burnouts associated with GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards. However, none of them are related to the use of the native power adapters supplied by Nvidia with these accelerators.