Melting connectors issue reaches GeForce RTX 5080

Recently, a message appeared on the Internet about the melting power connector on the GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card, although Nvidia previously stated that it did not expect a repeat of the problem that previously haunted the RTX 4090 graphics cards. But, apparently, the problem of melting connectors affected not only the RTX 5090 – owners of the RTX 5080 are not immune from it either.

Image source: Ambitious_ladder1320 / Reddit

A Reddit user reported an incident with his Asus GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card. According to him, during normal use of the graphics card, he noticed that the indicator light signaling that the power cable was not connected correctly was glowing red. The owner claims that he connected the GPU power cable correctly. To fix the problem, he turned off the computer and then reconnected the power cable connector to the graphics card port.

After rebooting the computer, the user found that the monitor resolution and refresh rate had decreased, and the video card had switched to PCIe 3.0 x16 mode. After that, he turned off the computer again, rechecked all the power cables, and found that the video card power cable connector on the power supply side had melted slightly. Fortunately, the power connector on the video card itself did not receive any visible damage.

It is noteworthy that the owner of the card uses a 1000W Asus ROG Loki power supply in his PC. A similar model, but with a power of 1200W, was involved in another case of melting the power connector on the RTX 5090. It would seem that the problem may lie in the power supply itself. However, some believe that the cause may be the design of the 12VHPWR and 12V-2×6 power cables, as they are prone to significant overheating. If this is indeed the case and the problem lies in the power cable itself, Nvidia needs to completely revise its design.

Let’s remember that the power consumption of the RTX 5080 is significantly lower than that of the RTX 5090 and even the RTX 4090. However, the problem of melting power cables and connectors is present even in it.

At this point, there is no conclusive evidence that the RTX 5080 is the user’s fault or that the power cable is the problem. A larger sample size and more thorough analysis are needed to draw definitive conclusions.

We should add that popular YouTube blogger Stephen Burke from the Gamers Nexus channel became interested in the situation. He offered the owner of the RTX 5080 to buy the video card, power supply unit and power cable at full price for further examination of the components and an attempt to return them to the manufacturer under warranty.