- Nvidia has said it is not ‘expected’ that there will be problems with cable melting with RTX 5090
- The company reminded us of the changes in the 16-leg power plug after RTX 4090 ran into trouble
- However, a workshop in California has stated separately that it still repairs molten RTX 4090s on a ‘daily’ basis
Nvidia has assured us that the RTX 5090 GPU “is not expected” to have any problems with melting power plugs, as can be seen with the RTX 4090 (and we will come back to dive into history and the current situation with Lovelace’s flagship, later in this article).
The South Korean Tech site Quasarzone published an article describing Nvidia’s ‘RTX AI” day, which includes a Q&A session (noted by Videocardz), and one of the questions asked was about the topic of the 16-leg power socket used by RTX 4090, and also employed in the upcoming RTX 5090.
A participant at the event noted that there was a problem with the plug molten due to overheating with RTX 4090, and asked, “Has this been resolved with RTX 5090?”
An Nvidia representative replied: “It is expected that such problems will not arise with the RTX 50 Series. In response to the problem at that time, some changes were made to the plugs and after about two years we believe these problems have become resolved. “
I should note that this is translated from Korean and we should have it firm in mind in terms of the accuracy of what has been said here and the exact meaning, but the essence is clear enough.
Analysis: Power Paranoia
Okay, time to press the rewind button for a moment. You may remember the melting cable affair with Lovelace’s flagship GPU when it first came out, but it is worth throwing a quick summary. (Or if you want the full background, go here first).
In a nutshell, this was a problem with the fact that 16-leg connectors (12VHPWR) from the PC’s power supply to the RTX 4090 graphics card were not properly inserted into the card and overheating as a result. If that overheating came to a critical enough level, the plastic would begin to melt (and a bad connection was more likely if the adapter had to bend around in a sharper than the ideal angle due to space problems inside the PC cabinet).
After the emergence of these reports of melting adapters, Nvidia brought a new 16-leg power socket design (12V-2×6, a revision of 12VHPWR) to reduce the possible fire risk by a loosely seated plug.
Essentially, Nvidia put the problem down to a user error (not making sure the plug was completely connected), and then moved to change the plug to minimize any chance of it happening. This stinging revision involved changes in the length of the legs, including making the “Sense” bones shorter, so if the plug does not fully stuck, or it loosens and begins to fall out, the graphics card will turn off and not work (instead of that continue to function and cause the overheating problem).
This will be the same situation for the RTX 5090, so the security aspect should be fine, or that is the claim Nvidia makes here. Apart from the fact that there is a remarkable nuance in the (translated) language here that has been formulated in relation to the ‘not expected’ that melting problems with RTX 5090 will occur.
It is not a cast iron exclusion of any problem, but of course we must be vigilant about the translation from Korean, as already mentioned. The added concern with the RTX 5070 is that it seriously increases power consumption to 575W (at least compared to 450W with RTX 4090), but despite that, Nvidia says it does not expect to see any problems with melting plugs.
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The second concern here, as Videocardz points out, is that although the NVIDIA representative notes that after two years it seems that the problems of melting cable with RTX 4090 have been resolved, there were still reports that this happened in 2024 – and even as new as this month, January 2025. It is, according to Northridgefix (a technical workshop in California, USA) that claims to get RTX 4090 boards with melted plugs on a daily basis still.
So there is a level of paranoia here, and it is not unexpected in itself, especially considering, as mentioned, how much longer RTX 5090 pushes with its power consumption compared to its predecessor.
Ultimately, the proof will be in the pudding of the power cord (there is an ugly dessert) and how people move forward with the new flagship GPU when released. Until then, of course, we cannot judge the RTX 5090 on the melting result, but you would hope that this is somehow a problem that it would have been an absolute priority for NVIDIA to design against and fully put on bed.
