In worrying news for gamers, yet another burned-out Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 cable has been reported. While the GPU power port itself seems undamaged, a burned-out MSI cable, specifically designed to help ensure a firm and fully seated fit for the power cable, has received the full scorched earth treatment.
This is the second MSI RTX 5090 cable to burn out under similar circumstances in just a few months. While the RTX 5090 is certainly one of the best graphics card options out there for performance, the high power draw of these Nvidia GPUs appears to be occasionally causing some fairly dramatic failures that typically leave the card destroyed.
This latest failure was reported by u/VersauteGurke in a post on Reddit. In the post, the Reddit user explains that, after experiencing their monitor randomly losing input, they found their GPU cable to have melted. The card itself appears visually undamaged, with no melted or damaged pins, but the MSI cable itself is a different story, with the yellow pins completely scorched and partially melted.
Despite their Corsair HX1500i power supply coming with a dedicated 16-pin cable, u/VersauteGurke instead used the new black and yellow MSI extension cable supplied with their GPU for power. There’s no indication to suggest any kind of user failure here, and given the damage, MSI has already recommended that the Redditor take their card back to the retailer for an RMA request – a safe suggestion, given the underlying damage that may have occurred to the card itself.
With a power rating of 575W, the RTX 5090 is a GPU that requires a significant amount of power. While Nvidia continues to have faith in its updated 12V-2×6 socket design for top-tier RTX 50 series cards, 575W is still a lot of power to put through a single connector. Unfortunately, as these failures show, it isn’t entirely without risk, with each failure further seeding doubt that the overall design is fit for purpose over the long term.
It’s been mere months since the RTX 5090’s release, so it’s perhaps too early to judge the longevity of this card and its power connector, but we’ll be hoping that these failures remain (relatively) rare. You can check out our RTX 5090 review next to see our thoughts on this new Nvidia flagship card, even if getting your hands on one continues to be pretty difficult indeed, at least in the US.
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