An owner of an NVIDIA RTX 5090 went the proverbial extra mile to ensure the GPU’s 12VHPWR cable was free from the dreaded melting issue by creating a cutout in the mesh side panel of their casing.  Sadly, not even that could prevent the situation from happening, and the connector’s head still burned out.

The Bilibili user made the post on the Chinese platform (it’s been deleted since) says that they connected their RTX 5090 to a PSU made by the brand Goghunters, and called the Fire F12 1200W. As the name suggests, it’s a 1200W power supply, and yes, the word “Fire” is in its name.

The RTX 5090 owner said that they didn’t do any overclocking or undervolting, running the card in its stock mode. As for the cutout, the side panel is basically made of mesh, so making the cutout wouldn’t have been difficult. They also made sure that they didn’t apply any additional pressure while routing the 16-pin 12VHPWR cable.

In spite of all the careful planning, the 12VHPWR cable still overheated and, mercifully, the damage to the header was discovered before it was a complete loss for the owner of the RTX 5090.

So, who is to blame? Well, by the Bilibili owner’s account, they pointed their finger directly at Goghunters and the brand’s 12VHPWR cable, and even criticised its RMA response. The brand eventually responded, asking that the RTX 5090 owner send the PSU back to them for factory inspection, saying that the process may take up to one month.

As for the RTX 5090 with the near death experience, the owner reportedly sent it over to a Bilibili repair specialist. They replaced the header on the GPU for around US$90 (~RM367), plus a phase-change thermal pad that reduced the GPU hotspot temperature by around 18°C. On the subject of power, they got themselves a Seasonic 1600W PSU and even added a mini Noctua fan that blows directly at the GPU power connector.

(Source: Bilbili via Videocardz, Uniko Hardware)

Updated 7:31 pm, Fri, 14 August 26