It’s already a recognized fact that at least some NVIDIA RTX 5090 and 5080 have problems with melting of connectors and power cables. Enthusiasts offer technical solutions.
Hardware Busters, a group of hardware testers, proposes to build an overheat or high-current protection circuit into 12V-2×6 cables, or both. Aris Mpitsiopoulos, who is also the CEO and chief test engineer of Cybenetics and created the Cybenetics PSU certification program, spoke about the options.
One approach is to attach thermistors to the six 12V sensors on the video card side. If any particular wire overheats, it should disconnect from the power supply to prevent damage to the video card. However, this method will not protect against failures that occur on the power supply side. Another suggested solution involves attaching shunts to control the current flow on each wire. If the current exceeds 12 A for more than three seconds, the circuit opens and disconnects the video card from the power supply.
Mpitsiopoulos says that the best solution would be to have both types of protection on the cables, but that would increase production costs. However, if someone is already spending more than $1000 on an RTX 5080, or twice or even three times more on RTX 5090The costs of protecting investments should not be frustrating.
Some manufacturers are already taking steps to ensure that video cards are not damaged. Asus has added per-pin current monitoring to its top-of-the-line RTX 50 Astral model so that the user is alerted to dangerous loads. One user Reddit even offered to install 10 A automotive fuses on the cable.
Many people on the Internet also talk about the fundamental unreliability of the standard. 12V-2×6 cables seem too thin for their load, which has increased with the release of NVIDIA RTX 50. Nevertheless, it would be extremely frustrating to lose such an expensive device simply during normal use. A company that makes billions of dollars from AI chips could have offered some sort of more reliable power supply for graphics cards.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
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