- A small number of reports of RTX 5090 power cables overheating and melting have been confirmed
- This follows widespread reports of similar issues with the previous RTX 4090
- However, it’s possible that third-party cables could be to blame this time around
Remember ‘cablegate’? Back in late 2022, users started to report that the power connectors of their Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics cards were overheating and essentially melting into unusable hunks of plastic – and now, according to some buyers, the same issue could be plaguing the newly-released RTX 5090.
Now, I covered the cablegate fiasco when the story was at its peak, and at the time, I was willing to assign at least some portion of the blame to Nvidia, as the PCIe Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) had previously published a report warning of ‘thermal variance’ risks regarding the 12VHPWR adapter used for the RTX 4090. This time around, though, I’m really not so sure Nvidia is at fault.
For starters, the issues appear far less widespread than with the RTX 4090; while there were literally dozens of reports back in 2022 (which continued well into 2024), we’ve only seen two isolated confirmed cases of cable-melting with regard to the RTX 5090. The first came from a Reddit user, while the second was reported by the Spanish YouTube channel Toro Tocho Reviews. Both reported the same issue: the power cable overheated and melted at both ends, something we didn’t see in the majority of RTX 4090 connector failures.
Secondly, the first of these cases was confirmed to have involved a third-party power cable from PC-modding supplier MODDIY, introducing a new potential point of failure. Nvidia has now moved over to the 12V-2×6 connection standard for more stable power delivery and more secure pin connections, and although MODDIY claims its cables support the new standard, the Reddit user stated that they’d been using this cable for two years with an RTX 4090. Backward compatibility with third-party 12VHPWR cables is likely to continue to be an issue for Nvidia’s GPUs – notably, MODDIY now has a page on its website advising buyers with RTX 5000-series GPUs to purchase new-for-2025 12V-2×6 cables.
So is there really a problem?
In other words, at least one of these cable-melting cases appears to have been caused by user error: the 12VHPWR cable that melted, despite being physically compatible with the RTX 5090, was presumably unable to handle the power delivery taking place. Nvidia’s latest flagship GPU is a hungry girl, after all, with an obscene 575W TDP.
PC modders are gonna mod, of course, but given the known issues with the previous-gen card’s power connector, I’d personally be very reluctant to use anything but the cables supplied in the box at this point. A Reddit megathread on the topic has been created to compile additional cases, and there’s a fair amount of debate in the comments as to whether Nvidia is to blame or if users should be taking more care to avoid third-party cables – even if they claim to be compatible.
Naturally, I reached out to my contact at Nvidia to ask for a quote, but Team Green declined to comment – not even a ‘we’re investigating’, instead pointing me to MODDIY’s page warning about using older 12VHPWR cables. It seems Nvidia feels more confident this time around, further reinforcing the idea that the cases we’ve seen so far were caused not by the GPUs themselves but rather third-party hardware.
It is still possible that we’re only at the beginning of a tidal wave of similar reports – given the extremely limited availability of the RTX 5090 at launch, we might be yet to see the full extent of the issue as only a small number of users have managed to get their hands on the GPU.
Still, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Two cases (with a few more unconfirmed) aren’t exactly the cavalcade of issues we saw after the RTX 4090 launch, so there’s every chance these problems won’t be so widespread. If you were lucky enough to snag one of Nvidia’s new flagship GPUs, my only advice is this: stick with the supplied cables for now! If you’ve got thoughts on this, please feel free to tell me what a genius/idiot I am in our shiny new comments section below. Frankly, I’d love to chat with someone who actually managed to buy one of these cards…
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christian.guyton@futurenet.com (Christian Guyton)
