- The latest version of ASUS GPU Tweak III comes with a fine new feature
- Power Detector+ warns you if any of the pins on your graphics card’s Power Connector have too many amplifiers flowing through them
- It can lead to a scenario where the power cord melts as we have seen in reports, so the warning should help you avoid a potentially bad result
ASUS has released a new version of its GPU software package that adds what can be a very useful – or actually critical – warning when temperatures run high with the graphics card and a power federation may occur that melts disaster.
The latest version of the GPU Tweak III software comes with the Power Detector+ warning feature that ASUS notes is exclusive to ROG Astral and Matrix Graphics Cards.
The ROG Astral models are RTX 5090 and 5080, and the ROG matrix is the RTX 4090 last gene flagship.
As Videocardz reports, the idea is that the software monitors the power cable, specifically the AMPS value for the pins (inside the plug) connected to the gate on your graphics card. Should there be a problem with one (or more) of the pins that do not sit properly – and the value is either zero or rises above 9 amps – the tool will mark a warning.
The cable, which does not sit properly in this way, is a possible scenario where the effect socket could end seriously overheated to the point where it melts that we have previously seen reported with some NVIDIA GPUs.
This means that when you get this warning, you can shut down your PC quickly and then check the power cable, maybe disconnect and then connect it more again. Hopefully, it solves any problem and avoids a cable melting event that can damage the GPU.
Analysis: More of this kind of surveillance please – even if it is in the pipeline elsewhere
Interestingly, the GPU Tweak Software is a tool that can be used with all GPUs, AMD or NVIDIA and not just models from ASUS. However, there is only support for this power-related warning available to the ASUS ROG RTX 5090 and 4090 flagships and RTX 5080 Astral, as mentioned-in the smallest for now.
Perhaps the graphics card manufacturer will expand this support in time, as it is undoubtedly a useful warning system to have – and cable melting reports are not exclusive to these models.
(As well as reports on this problem with RTX 5090, I should note that there have also been similar allegations made with the RTX 5080 models that can be all kinds of factors that play here that we have discussed in the past. But it is clear that the flagship GPU’s GPUS will always be in the most dangerous situations, the power of power, considering desktop graphics card).
Hopefully, other suppliers will climb on board this Power Warning Bandwagon, though some players have already used the HWINFO tool to monitor the amps in their power cable pins. Note that this functionality for HWINFO is only in beta tests right now (and also requires that another tool, Rivatuner, to work).
The long and short of it is that the fully expanded and tested support will hopefully be in Hwinfo before too long, with luck. The more widespread this kind of monitoring can be done, the better.
