Reports of power cables melting in early adopters of Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card are emerging, echoing concerns seen with the earlier RTX 4090 model. A similar issue was reported in 2022, where power connectors would melt and catch fire due to user error.
According to testing, the problems were caused by users not inserting the 12VHPWR connectors fully into the socket or bending them incorrectly, leading to overheating and eventual failure. The PCI-SIG, standards body for connector design, attributed the issue to manufacturers’ implementation rather than a fault in the standard itself.
To address concerns, the 12V-2×6 connector was introduced as an updated standard, featuring improved seating mechanisms that ensure power delivery only when connectors are firmly seated.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/handful-of-users-claim-new-nvidia-gpus-are-melting-power-cables-again