TECH NEWS – When the 12VHPWR power connector melts, you really have to wonder if Nvidia has gone overboard…

12 pin power cables melt all the time due to design flaws, and in this particular case both sides of the cable were affected. These problems are not going away anytime soon, at least not until the design flaw in the 12-pin connector is fixed. Unfortunately, the problem is most prevalent with the higher-end RTX 5000 cards, especially the RTX 5090, which can draw close to 600W at peak load.

One such case recently surfaced where a user saw the 12-pin connectors melt on both the power supply and the GPU. This is most commonly seen on the power supply side, but it is not the only place where this happens, as this time it affected both the GPU and the power supply, permanently damaging the components. A Reddit user posted pictures of the melted connectors on the cable and the PSU. According to him, there was no overcurrent and the cable used was the 12VHPWR that came with the PSU.

MSI 5090 Gaming trio OC melted cable (repost with pics)
byu/Roachard innvidia

The power supply in question was the Corsair SF1000L, a premium SFX power supply used to power the MSI RTX 5090 Gaming Trio OC. If you look closely, you can see about four pins on the connector that were noticeably affected by the melting, but other pins were also somewhat melted. One of the pins has a bump due to melting of the plastic, and the pins on the other end are horribly melted. In some previous cases, we have seen similar cases where one or both ends of the cable have taken the full load. This occurs when the connector is not properly mated and the full load is shifted to the pins that make full contact.

In some cases, temperatures can exceed 150°, which can melt the cable and connectors. The user spent almost $2900 on the RTX 5090. Although the card or power supply could be replaced via RMA (with warranty), the problem is likely to recur. Sure, the newer 12V-2×6 connector makes it less likely to happen, but that essentially just ensures proper contact, not eliminates the design flaw that allows the cable to carry all the current through a few wires.

When will this end?

Source: WCCFTech