Conversations around the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 are not only exciting but also fairly positive for the most part. But there’s at least one major concern floating around: the fear of power connectors melting, just like we saw with the RTX 4090. And given the $1,999 price tag, nobody wants to deal with a potential hardware failure again.
But Nvidia’s on it, reassuring fans that they’re doing everything they can to avoid a repeat of the issues from the 4090.
A quick recap: what went down with the RTX 4090
When the RTX 4090 hit the market in October 2022, some users started reporting overheating and even melting power connectors. At first, Nvidia pointed to user error, claiming that people were plugging the connectors in wrong. However, the experienced PC community couldn’t accept it so easily. So Nvidia took a closer look and made some changes.
Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/89110/multiple-geforce-rtx-4090-cards-dead-melted-16-pin-power-connectors/index.html
They ended up redesigning the 12V-2×6 16-pin cable, making it more durable and adding shorter, more conductive pins to help with heat management. This fix definitely reduced the number of overheating incidents, but some 4090s still had issues, especially those with older cables. The original cables, designed for a 600-watt power draw, just weren’t cutting it for the demanding GPU.
But what about the RTX 5090?
Now, the RTX 5090 is about to drop on January 30, 2025, and it’s actually pulling even more power than the 4090—575 watts up from 450 watts of the previous generation. But Nvidia’s confident that the updated 12V-2×6 connector will be able to handle it. At a recent event, the company assured everyone that the new design is built to withstand the added power demand, so the risk of melting connectors should be a lot lower.
Some manufacturers aren’t just relying on Nvidia’s new connector, though. MSI, for example, has added yellow-tipped power adapters to their builds, which lets users see if the connector is securely plugged in—something that could help prevent the user errors that Nvidia has previously pointed to as the cause of connector issues.
While Nvidia’s tweaks and their partners’ innovations suggest they are taking the right steps to keep things safe, users may still consider upgrading their power supply before replacing their existing card with the RTX 5090.
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Source: Quasar Zone
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