yellow-tipped MSI 12V-2×6 power connector melts with RTX 5090
MSI’s custom 12V-2×6 power connector melts when used with an Nvidia RTX 5090
An RTX 5090 GPU user on Reddit has reported that their 12V-2×6 connector has melted. Specifically, the melted cable is an MSI yellow-tipped 12V-2×6 power connector. After suffering from random “DisplayPort not connected” errors, the user found that their GPU’s power connector had melted.
In the image above, it is clear that all of the GPU connector’s power pins are charred. However, the GPU side of the power connector does not appear to have been melted. This mirrors a similar case in April, which also involved MSI’s 12V-2×6 power connector.
MSI’s yellow-tipped cables are made to ensure that users plug in their 12V-2×6 connectors fully. As such, it is unlikely that this cable melted due to user error. Currently, it is unclear if the user’s graphics card is permanently damaged.
rtx 5090 power connector melted
byu/VersauteGurke inpcmasterrace
Yellow-tipped MSI 12V-2×6 power cables aren’t the problem – modern GPU design is
These kinds of issues are relatively common for RTX 5090 users. A new instance of cable melting is reported every few weeks. The same was true with Nvidia’s high-end RTX 40 series GPUs. So far, Nvidia has not done enough to address this issue.
For RTX 40 and RTX 50 series GPUs, all six power pins on 16-pin (12V-2×6/12VHPWR) connectors are consolidated on graphics cards. This means that all six pins are brought together and measured as a single input (with ASUS’ ROG Astral RTX 5080/5090 GPUs being a notable exception). If the load is unbalanced across the cable, most of today’s GPUs cannot measure that or do anything about it. This can lead to too much power going through single pins, causing heat buildup and other issues.
With Nvidia’s RTX 30 series GPUs, Nvidia split the power cables on 12-pin/16-pin power cables into three separate inputs. This enabled reliable load balancing and prevented power distribution issues. Note that “cable melting” was not a problem with Nvidia’s RTX 30 series GPUs. All Nvidia needs to do to prevent this issue is to ensure strong load balancing on 12V-2×6 power cables. This can be achieved at the GPU design level. Sadly, Nvidia has done nothing to address this. Now, 3rd parties are working around this issue to ensure consumer safety.
You can join the discussion on this melted MSI yellow 12V-2×6 power connector on the OC3D Forums.
