RTX 5090 Owner Reports Severe 16 Pin Connector Damage After Light Gaming

Another GeForce RTX 5090 owner has reported serious damage to a 16 pin power connector, adding to the growing list of high power GPU connector failures seen this year.

In this case, the damage appears more severe than simple discoloration or minor melting. Photos shared by the owner show that plastic between two neighboring contacts melted away, leaving a visible hole in the power plug.

The graphics card involved was a PNY GeForce RTX 5090 installed in a DigitalStorm prebuilt PC. According to the owner, the problem became noticeable after a burning smell appeared while playing Crypt of the NecroDancer.

The failure is unusual because the system had reportedly been running relatively light games before the damage was noticed. The owner said the card had also been used for Shattered Pixel Dungeon shortly beforehand. Neither game would normally be expected to place a sustained maximum load on an RTX 5090.

However, there are no measurements showing the GPU power draw, cable temperature or current distribution between individual conductors when the failure happened. The exact cause therefore remains unknown.

PNY reportedly declined the warranty request

The owner said the cable was removed before obvious damage appeared on the graphics card's own power socket.

After discovering the problem, the owner contacted both PNY and DigitalStorm. According to the owner's account, PNY declined the request because the cable being used was not supplied directly by the graphics card manufacturer.

DigitalStorm reportedly offered to help deal with PNY.

Instead of immediately shipping the card away, the owner found a local repair service willing to inspect and repair the GPU for roughly $180. It is still unclear whether damage is limited to the connector area or whether other components were affected.

There has also been no independent technical inspection confirming what caused the overheating.

RTX 5090 connector failures remain under scrutiny

This is not the first report involving the RTX 5090 and excessive connector temperatures.

Another RTX 5090 case reported earlier in September involved an MSI Gaming Trio OC card that suffered connector damage while running DLSS 5 tests. Monitoring software reportedly recorded total board power reaching more than 613W in that case.

Separate testing has also shown how current imbalance across conductors can create dangerous temperatures. One RTX 5090 cable reportedly reached around 175 degrees Celsius during testing on an ASUS ROG Astral card while significant differences in current between individual wires were being observed.

Those cases do not prove that the same mechanism caused the latest PNY incident.

The new report is based mainly on the owner's account and photographs. There are no electrical measurements from the time of failure, so factors such as connector seating, cable construction, resistance, current distribution or another hardware issue cannot yet be isolated.

What is clear is that the physical damage was substantial despite the card apparently being used for relatively undemanding games when the burning smell became noticeable. Until the card and cable receive a proper technical examination, the exact failure mechanism remains uncertain.