MSI's Yellow RTX 5090 Power Connector Is No Defense Against Burning GPU Cables
Another RTX 5090 has run into problems of blue screens and damaged cables, and in this case despite the user connecting it using MSI's yellow-tipped power cables, which were designed to minimize user error. Although the card itself appears to have survived the incident, the MSI 12V-2x6 specialized adapter did not, suggesting that even the enhanced safety of official cabling can't prevent these mishaps.
Among a range of surprising problems with the Nvidia RTX 50 series, the case of melting and burning cables has been one of the most bizarre. Despite changes made to the Nvidia 600W 12V-2x6 power connector since the launch of the RTX 4090 three years ago, the newer RTX 5090, 5080, and even 5070 Ti cards have all been shown capable of melting or damaging connected power cables during normal operation. Although user error has been blamed on these kinds of problems before, it seems increasingly unlikely to be the main culprit when even those using specialized adapters are running into the same issue.
In this instance, the owner of a $3,150 MSI RTX 5090 Suprim graphics card faced a series of blue screen errors. When checking on the GPU, they discovered burn marks on the individual wires within the specialized MSI 12V-2x6 adapter. This is despite it being one of MSI's special yellow connectors, which make it easy to see if the connector isn't plugged in properly—if you can see the yellow, it is not.
Credit: QuasarZone
That proved no defence against this ongoing issue with Nvidia's RTX 50-series cards, though. Videocardz reports that though the card appears to be working, the owner is seeking a replacement from MSI as part of the RMA process. They claimed to have only played games for a few hours on the card—something that should be well within its capabilities—and it didn't even pull its full power, sitting at around 400W throughout.
This instance is particularly problematic for Nvidia and claims of user error being the main cause of burned or melted cables. Although using the native power cables with your PSU is probably the safest way to connect a graphics card to your system, the second-best and most highly recommended method is using the "official" power adapters that come with the card. In this case, it was even one of MSI's cables designed specifically to make instances like this less likely. Along with the yellow tip, it even features shorter sensor pins, ensuring that the card cannot draw its full complement of power unless they are plugged in completely.
The saga continues with Nvidia's problematic power connector. While this is just one more, it is one more in an already lengthy list of damaged cards. Even accounting for user error, it seems like further redesigns are in order to make sure this doesn't happen with future GPUs.
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