By Sarfraz Khan
Publication Date: 2026-03-01 15:39:00
The notorious 16-pin connector melting didn’t originate with the RTX 50 series, and it dates back to as early as 2022, when we used to see regular reports of connector melting on the RTX 4090. Despite NVIDIA and its AIBs’ attempts to mitigate the problem, the saga continues. Almost every week, we hear new reports of connector melting, mostly on the flagship Blackwell GeForce RTX 5090, rated at 575W.
We have been reporting the stories regularly since the launch of the RTX 5090, and even a year after its official launch, the reports continue. Today, we will be deep diving into the issue, examining the common patterns behind these connector melting reports, what NVIDIA and GPU manufacturers have done to mitigate the risks, and what you can do to ensure a melting-free operation.
RTX 5090 Becomes the New Victim of Connector Melting: The Timeline
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 was officially unveiled at CES 2025, launching at the end of January in retail stores. In just 10 days, the first RTX 5090 connector melting report surfaced, revealing how severely the cable connector had melted on the RTX 5090 Founders Edition. While it was no surprise to see the connector melting issue getting extended to RTX 5090, as it was also common on the GeForce RTX 4090, the RTX 5090 appears to be affected more frequently.
With the TGP limit increasing from 450W on the RTX 4090 to 575W on the new flagship card, it was obvious that this increased power limit…
