The greatest scandal in GPUs by no means actually went away, although NVIDIA says it is mounted the issue
Remember when the costliest shopper GPUs within the international stage truly melted? Or, more often than not, when their connectors melted? I do too. But it is not a factor of the previous.
Although the RTX 50-series wasn’t alleged to fall sufferer to the Nvidia melting saga, it nonetheless did. Within weeks of launch, photographs of scorched RTX 5090 plugs had been everywhere in the web. This continues to at the present time.
Nvidia’s repair solved an issue, however not the one downside
Seating was solely half the story
Thinking again, it is laborious to imagine that it has been one thing near 4 years since this entire “melting connector saga” even began. The first victims had been Nvidia’s RTX 4090s, which, on the time, had been the highest shopper GPUs obtainable.
If you belief any {hardware} to carry out effectively, it is most likely that. Something as costly because the $1,600 RTX 4090 makes you imagine that it may well deal with something. And but, by some means, reviews of points began cropping up shortly, with playing cards seemingly failing even once they weren’t coping with any significantly heavy workloads. The melting occurred each on the GPU facet of the connector and on the PSU facet, forcing RMA processes and replacements.
Nvidia investigated, in fact. And it pointed the finger not on the {hardware}, however on the approach individuals plugged these GPUs in. Makes sense: it turned out that when the connector wasn’t totally pushed into the cardboard, it grew to become a fireplace hazard. Bending the connector was additionally an enormous no-no. Nvidia additionally stated it solely knew of about 50 instances worldwide, which is a extremely small margin. Gamers Nexus backed that evaluation, placing the failure charge at roughly 0.04%. Meanwhile, Nvidia promised a fast-tracked RMA course of.
An even bigger repair adopted, sort of
The follow-up to the saga got here with the arrival of the 12V-2×6 connector, which has sense pins which are 1.5mm shorter and energy terminals which are 0.25mm longer than the unique (problematic, would possibly I add) 12VHPWR design. The design was meant to repair the complete downside, as a result of if the plug is not all the best way in, the sense pins cannot even make contact. That’d resolve the entire “not plugged in correctly” debacle, as the cardboard cannot even pull energy by a poorly seated connector.
Nvidia appeared fairly assured that the 12V-2×6 can be the reply to all the issues. It even said that it did not count on the RTX 5090 to have melting points.
The bother is that these shorter pins solely verify that the plug is totally inserted, however they can not inform whether or not the present is unfold evenly throughout the six 12V pins, so a card that sees a correctly seated plug will hold drawing full energy even when one wire is doing a lot of the work. That brings us to the continuing concern.
The actual perpetrator is the place the present goes after you plug it in
Six wires, one large pool of 12V, and nothing maintaining them in test
Let’s get somewhat technical, as a result of to know why the melting continues although the brand new connector was alleged to be one of the best factor since sliced bread. It all comes all the way down to what occurs to the ability as soon as it reaches the GPU, and to make it make sense, we’ll look way back to the RTX 30 collection.
On the RTX 30-series, Nvidia handled the 16-pin connector as three separate 12V sources. Each had its personal shunt resistor, too. Those shunt resistors allowed the cardboard to stability its load, balancing throughout every pair of wires and guaranteeing the whole lot was going effectively.
This modified with the RTX 40-series and continued into the RTX 50-series. These days, all six 12V traces are all lumped right into a single enter, so the GPU is barely made conscious of complete draw. That will be a difficulty, as a result of tiny variations involved resistance between pins are regular in any mass-produced connector, and present will all the time favor the trail of least resistance.
This discrepancy reveals up in real-world testing; der8auer examined an RTX 5090 FE, and located that two of the six wires had been carrying over 22A, whereas the remainder had been chilling at a cushty 2A. While they had been chilling, the connector itself was not: on the PSU-side, it was hitting 150 levels Celsius. Oof.
Extra context is vital right here: every pin is specced for roughly 9.5A. You can most likely see the place the issue lies now. I’ve to be honest, although, and say that der8auer’s outcomes aren’t reproduced by each reviewer, however the truth that they confirmed up in any respect remains to be alarming.
2026 has made the issue not possible to wave away
Reviewers are melting playing cards now, and DLSS 5 is not serving to
At a time when all GPUs are complete rip-offs, you may want them to not less than be good and secure. But the melting downside hasn’t precisely gone away simply because the market situations bought considerably worse over the previous 12 months.
Reviewers proceed to report points with the RTX 5090, which now prices $5,000-$7,500. Club386 misplaced an RTX 5090 FE and a be quiet! Dark Power 13 PSU to a melted cable. Nvidia changed the cardboard.
Meanwhile, Hardware Unboxed caught a cable on its ROG Astral RTX 5090 check bench hitting round 175 levels Celsius, and curiously, the issue was much like what der8auer reported beforehand: one wire was pulling round 22A whereas the others did subsequent to nothing.
Then, there’s DLSS 5. Most individuals complain about the AI slop of it all, however they’re lacking the actual downside; the rise in energy draw. TweakTown noticed a bounce from round 465W to a most of 575W when operating DLSS 5 in NBA 2K27. Shortly after, a VideoCardz reader reported that their RTX 5090 connector melted throughout testing DLSS 5.
You can minimize your threat with out shopping for a brand new PSU
So, as a lot as all of us want the melting connector was a factor of the previous, it is not. It’s nonetheless uncommon, however not not possible, and with the RTX 5090 priced the best way it’s, nobody desires to hurt their overpriced GPU.
The finest repair stays the identical by the years; be sure you push the plug in till it is totally seated, and go away not less than 35mm of straight cable earlier than it bends. Check it once more after your first few gaming periods to verify it is regular and unhurt.
I’d skip extensions and fancy bridges and adapters, as they’ll void guarantee, and so they do not all the time assist.
You also can contemplate undervolting your GPU. That might or might not defend it, however even when it does not repair the issue, it is a reliable technique for higher efficiency and longevity.
