In short: Following studies of melting and burning energy cables from RTX 4090 house owners, customers are understandably involved about Nvidia’s upcoming next-generation high-end graphics playing cards. Though all RTX 50 collection GPUs have increased energy necessities than their predecessors, Nvidia has expressed confidence that the now-standard 12V-2×6 energy cables are secure.
Nvidia lately reassured clients that its upcoming RTX 50 collection graphics playing cards will not repeat the controversy from two years in the past when the flagship RTX 4090 energy cables started melting and burning. The corporate has since switched to a brand new cable normal.
Customers started reporting points with Nvidia’s RTX 4090 energy cables in late 2022, and the episode finally led to a class-action lawsuit. An inner investigation decided that the affected cables had been incorrectly inserted, finally blaming consumer error, however some disagreed.
The PCI-SIG had beforehand issued warnings that 12VHPWR energy adapters, which many purchasers used to plug the RTX 4090 into older ATX 2.0 energy provide items, may overheat. As lately as late 2023, indicators indicated that probably a whole bunch of 4090s suffered from burning cables every month.
In response, Nvidia shifted to 12V-2×6 energy cables, which have not confronted the identical complaints as 12VHPWR. HardwareBusters and Linwell ran exams confirming that the brand new normal maintains secure temperatures even when improperly related. On the latest 2025 RTX AI occasion in Seoul, Nvidia claimed it hadn’t acquired any complaints concerning GPU energy cables in two years.
Taiwan producer MSI is taking an additional precautionary step. Pictures on the corporate’s web site present that it’ll ship the RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 Ti with yellow-tipped energy cables. When correctly inserted, the yellow paint won’t be seen, letting customers know they’ve a correctly seated cable.
In the meantime, Intel’s and AMD’s newest GPUs nonetheless use the older 8-pin format, which stays probably the most dependable at energy ranges beneath 300W. The choice is unsurprising since all Intel Arc Battlemage and AMD RX 9000 graphics playing cards goal mid-range and entry-level efficiency tiers properly under 300W.
Nvidia’s RTX 5090 (575W) and 5080 (360W) ought to launch on January 30, whereas the 5070 Ti (300W) would possibly start transport on February 20. The 5070’s (250W) launch date stays unsure, however AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 XT will compete in opposition to it in March.
Future generations of {hardware} would possibly get rid of energy cables if Asus’s BTF format good points acceptance. The corporate has spent the previous couple of years trialing a brand new normal that connects the GPU, motherboard, and PSU with out cables, eradicating a possible failure level.
