Enthusiast says DLSS 5 pushed RTX 5090 past 600W and melted the 16-pin connector

A HardOCP forum user reported that their RTX 5090 GPU overheated and caused the 16-pin power connector to melt while running DLSS 5 in NBA 2K27. The card, a MSI RTX 5090 Gaming Trio OC with a 575W TDP... Read original →

The NVIDIA RTX 5090's power consumption exceeding 600W under DLSS 5 has led to a 16-pin connector failure, exposing the imbalance between performance and safety in high-end GPUs. This incident undermines the reliability of tools like GPU-Z and challenges PCIe x16 standards. Upstream chip designers and power management vendors must reassess thermal and power models, while downstream OEMs like MSI face compliance risks. If NVIDIA fails to optimize power control, it may lose ground to competitors such as AMD, who could leverage this to highlight efficiency advantages. Within the next 12 months, the industry is likely to shift toward more energy-efficient architectures, with power limits and standards under renewed scrutiny as performance demands continue to rise.