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Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

theverge.com

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Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#41

Post by numpad0 »

BigJono wrote: post #13

This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…

They want to use the Molex for some reason. That's what doesn't make sense. They could just like, give it two ring connectors and let gamers screw them on. Bigger ones of rings take 50A(*12V = 600W) just fine.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#42

Post by NekkoDroid »

lyu07282 wrote: post #4

It's strange how Nvidia just doubled down on a flawed design for no apparent reason. It doesn't even do anything, the adapter is so short you still have the same mess of cables in the front of the case as before.

Can't have 4 connectors going into 1 video card, that would look ridiculous :/

- Nvidia

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#43

Post by account42 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #32

People are letting their hatred of Nvidia blind them to what happened here, a customer upgraded from a 4090FE to 5090FE, they were using a 3rd party ASUS 12VHPWR cable and didn't realize the 5090FE actually uses 12V-2x6 not 12VHPWR, while the port is the same the pins are different lengths. End of the day PC power cabling is such a shambles with things that look standard but are not so you should only ever really use…

Wait so Nvdia made a connector that is physically but not electrically compatible with their previous generation and you think that's an argument for not blaming them?

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#44

Post by account42 »

hulitu wrote: post #25
BigJono wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're the best of the bunch when it comes to PC parts, but think how far off they are in terms of usability compared to USB, or Ethernet, or HDMI, or Displayport, or those old VGA cables you had to screw in, or literally anything else. They only look good in comparison to the other power connectors.

> how far off they are in terms of usability compared to USB, or Ethernet, or HDMI, or Displayport, or those old VGA cables Those connectors were not designed to carry power.

USB, especially USB C, is very much designed to carry power. Not quite as much as high end graphics cards guzzle these days but it goes up to 240W. Ethernet, HDMI, DP and even VGA (with extensiosn) are also all used to carry power even if much smaller currents.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#45

Post by account42 »

delichon wrote: post #18
BigJono wrote: post #13

This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…

There exists a perfectly balanced point between usability and affordability that, if it can be achieved, makes exactly nobody happy.

GP's point is that "affordability" here is penny pinching considering the cost of the components those cables connect (and are usually included with).

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#46

Post by CharlieDigital »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #39
CharlieDigital wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it could work with an external power brick and the card exposing a dedicated external port.

For what purpose? That gives you similar cabling problems to internal connections, but now that cable is far less protected.

It would be a different connector and it moves some mass and heat outside of the case.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#47

Post by soramimo »

BigJono wrote: post #13

This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…

Part of it is likely backward compatibility.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#48

Post by Schiendelman »

numpad0 wrote: post #41
BigJono wrote: post #13

This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…

They want to use the Molex for some reason. That's what doesn't make sense. They could just like, give it two ring connectors and let gamers screw them on. Bigger ones of rings take 50A(*12V = 600W) just fine.

Define the exact "they" you're talking about and you'll start to see the problem.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#49

Post by pja »

mlsu wrote: post #33
BigJono wrote: post #13

This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…

Connectors are actually extremely difficult to make. - you have to ensure that the metal connectors take shape and bond to the wire properly. This is done by crimping. Look up how much a good crimping tool costs for a rough approximation of how difficult it can be to get this right. - one plastic bit has to mate with another plastic bit, mechanically. This needs to be easy enough for 99.99% of users to do easily, yet…

> I think next gen we will begin seeing 24V power supplies to deal with this.

May as well go the whole hog & jump to 48V.

(50V is as high as you can go whilst still being inside the “low voltage” electrical safety regime in most countries IIRC.)

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#50

Post by Schiendelman »

pja wrote: post #49
mlsu wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Connectors are actually extremely difficult to make. - you have to ensure that the metal connectors take shape and bond to the wire properly. This is done by crimping. Look up how much a good crimping tool costs for a rough approximation of how difficult it can be to get this right. - one plastic bit has to mate with another plastic bit, mechanically. This needs to be easy enough for 99.99% of users to do easily, yet…

> I think next gen we will begin seeing 24V power supplies to deal with this. May as well go the whole hog & jump to 48V. (50V is as high as you can go whilst still being inside the “low voltage” electrical safety regime in most countries IIRC.)

Then the graphics card would have to have a transformer on it to step down to the voltage that the chips can handle.
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