Story thread · 6 reports / 2 sources

Hardware Unboxed Falls Victim to Melted RTX 5090 Power Connector as Cable Reaches 175°C

techpowerup.com · 12dShare

Hardware Unboxed has become the latest hardware channel to watch a 12V-2×6 connector melt on an RTX 5090 test bench. The setup paired an ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 with a be quiet! Dark Power 13 PSU, and host Steve reportedly only caught the fault after touching the cable and finding it hot enough to burn his hand. A thermal camera later confirmed readings above 150°C, climbing to roughly 175°C under load. A Thermal Grizzly WireView Pro caught the underlying problem immediately: a severe current imbalance where some pins carried almost nothing while a single wire was pulling around 22A. Oddly, the damage turned out to be worse on the PSU side rather than at the GPU. The cable had fused inside the Dark Power 13's connector and needed pliers to remove, while the card's own connector escaped without visible marks. Hardware Unboxed says the cable was fully seated and isn't blaming the incident on installation. This is far from an isolated case, as this connector is notorious for melting. We

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