As we saw with the case of Ivan6953 and his burnt RTX 5090, the risks of melting power connectors on NVIDIA cards are still not behind us. Especially as the cards do not incorporate the necessary protection mechanisms to avoid this. As we saw with Der8auer, the load is not distributed evenly between the pins, so the risk of damage is serious. So much so that a retailer recalled the cards sold… Recall cancelled in the meantime.
RX 5090 cards recalled then finally not…
It’s hard to say what’s behind all this. Via Kitguru, we learn that a dealer based in the Netherlands has launched a recall campaign for the 5090 sold. The reason given for this is an increased risk of fire, which makes sense as we’ve seen. Incidentally, the cards in question were MSI models. The procedure provided for no favouritism between customers, with all being treated equally according to their pre-order or purchase ranking.
However, the recall seems to have been cancelled in the meantime, so the question is what happened? Was it an internal communication error? Or the initiative of a zealous employee? It’s hard to say.
In the meantime, the problems of melting and damage to the power connectors are not insignificant. The RTX 40s have suffered a great deal from this, while the 5090 takes things even further. Yes, as well as offering the same connectors, with no real safety mechanism, NVIDIA is pushing the power consumption of its GPU even further. As for custom cards, things aren’t much better… Only ASUS stands out with its Astral series and a power monitoring system, but that’s about it.
As Der8auer said, up until now, this system has operated in a precarious balance, and all the ingredients are there for it to ‘go wrong’.
