Despite featuring the latest ATX 3.1 and PCI-E 5.1 standards, the 12V-2x6 power cable attached to the GeForce RTX 5090 runs pretty hotly, reaching concerning levels.
The 12V-2x6 Power Cable Reaches a Whopping 150°C on the PSU Side Under Stress Test With NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090
Reaching over 100°C is already a red flag for a connector but above 150°C? This is not only rare but also shows how bad of a design the 16-pin power connector boasts. The updated 12V-2x6 power cables aren't spared from this flaw, even though they did help the RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 from the melting issue to some extent.
We did see some cases where the connectors on the RTX 5090 as well as the PSU were melted, particularly when the 12VHPWR connector was used. However, the 12V-2x6 connector remains somewhat safe, but the latest illustration does raise concerns and probably induces fear among the RTX 5090 owners. Since the GPU can consume up to 575W at peak or even more on custom editions, the temperatures on the connectors can get really high.
While doing some thermal imaging of a graphics card and reviewing the images, I noticed, that the camera picked up a hotspot at the PSU. The 12V-2x6 cable was cooking at 150+ degrees. This is no joke and will forever remain a weak point of this generation(s). pic.twitter.com/qTMfgTwUr0
— Andreas Schilling 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@aschilling) March 7, 2025
We have seen before how the PSU side was more prone to higher temperatures than on the GPU side and this is exactly what Andreas Schilling showed in his test. The test setup used the Inno3D GeForce RTX 5090 iChill Frostbite edition, with a water block installed for great cooling. Even though the GPU is quite decent in thermal performance, most of the load is borne by the 16-pin power connectors and the cable itself.
Andreas reported that after some time, the 16-pin power connector and cable reached over 150°C. This was under full load when the GeForce RTX 5090 reached a power consumption of 600W. This is the first time we have heard of a 12V-2x6 connector reaching such an insanely high temperature, which would easily cause melting on both the wires and connectors on both sides. However, Andreas was lucky as his cable did not melt.
We saw previously that the 12VHPWR reached 150°C on the PSU side, but this might be the first time for a 12V-2x6 cable. The 16-pin power connector has several flaws in the design, allowing it to bear all the load on a single pin if all other pins aren't connected properly. This can easily lead to the melting of the connector and the wire/wires carrying the entire load in a couple of minutes or seconds once the GPU reaches 100% usage.
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