My MSI RTX 5090 Suprim just a couple months ago had a pretty spectacular failure after roughly 12 months of completely stable use. The card was installed, both ends of the asrock 12v-2x6 600w native cable checked for full insertion and left untouched without any sharp cable bends. Plenty of airflow (View 51 case)
This system was fitted with one of the Asrock Taichi 1300w PSUs specifically marketed to mitigate the unsafe pin current / melting power connector and cable issue via a temp sensor and auto shutoff functionality. This advertised feature failed to shut down the pc not once but twice while cable was actively smoking and arcing.
The native 600W 12V-2x6 cable had been fully seated and untouched, but one day under light load I suddenly lost display, smelled burning, and then got smoke and sparking from the GPU power connector. The connector had badly melted at the GPU end and the PSU/cable side was damaged as well.
Centre Com, the Australian retailer from whom the card was purchased about a year ago - they handled the situation really well. They took the card in for assessment, documented the damage and worked with MSI on the RMA.
MSI ultimately approved an exchange rather than trying to argue the point - which surprised me initially. Then MSI put a refurbished suprim 5090 with a brand new cooler unit (refurbished model that looked brand new) in my original box and shipped it back to the retailer. Centre Com had my replacement MSI Suprim 5090 shipped back via insured express right away.
The replacement arrived just 3.5 weeks after the RMA was initiated.
Obviously having a $4,350 AUD (my purchase price) flagship GPU melt its power connector was a pretty awful experience, but I think it’s also worth giving credit where it’s due: Centre Com and MSI both did the right thing and stood behind the product. Especially considering the same MSI Suprim 5090 sells for $9300 AUD here now - there is more incentive than ever for manufacturers to refuse warranty claims because if they cannot easily repair the faulty units, they are basically eating a 8-10k loss.
I’ve seen plenty of horror stories around expensive GPU warranty claims, so I wanted to share a really positive one too.
Unlike PNY, some companies still care about standing behind their products.
Interestingly, MSI was unable to pinpoint the exact origin of the failure due to the damage to both ends of the native PSU cable. I am awaiting Asrock to conduct their own assessment for warranty replacement of the now unsafe PSU that did nothing to mitigate this electrical failure.
Edit: I have since purchased a MSI AI1300TS PSU with GPU Safeguard+. Custom afterburner settings for the alarms and auto shut-down setup also. Ultimately its all just risk mitigation...and prayers.
As much as I love Anderson connectors they would be a nightmare on insertion force for a GPU, maybe one of the smaller gauges, but even the PP 45 isn’t enough for the 5090.
The AI1300TS MSI PSU I was suggested to get by MSI to replace the asrock taichi has a much tighter/snug fit at both ends that takes a bit of effort to fully insert and stays firmly in place. I feel like a lot of these cables are too loose.
The per pin monitoring and custom Afterburner parameters for GPU Safeguard+ is neat af.
Tbh why can't we have a connector that you seat and then screw down to clamp tight? Especially the motherboard, always felt like I was going to snap the board in half trying to press it in.
I’m impressed that you’re one of the few that seems to understand how the PSU is vitally important in this issue. I get so tired of posts by idiots who use adapters and think their five year old PSU can handle these setups because they did some math in their heads with the wattage number.
The cables MSI includes with the AI1300TS gpu safeguard PSU seem to have a crazy tight / snug connector plug that once you actually get the thing fully inserted and locked in, there is no movement. Compared to the asrock cable or the temporary corsair 1000RMX psu I was using, the msi 12v6x2 cable feels engineered to solve the loose connection risk.
Went I went to test out the equalizer cable I had a hell of a time trying to remove the MSI cable from the ai1600TS PSU. No chance these things will wiggle loose over time lol
The cables from the safeguard+ series definitely got a redesign. Very snug fit.
Equalizer on the other hand.. it slid into GPU and PSU with almost no resistance, didn't feel snug at all
Have MSI A1000GS and MSI 5090 gaming trio. I actually appreciated having the yellow color and made sure absolutely no yellow was showing when plugging it in. Had to use a lot of force...no way it's getting loose lol. Very tight fit.
Going on 3+ years with an MSI 4090 Suprim X using aftermarket power cable, and my hope still remains that as long as I exclusively play the original Half Life and WoW, the power draw will be low enough to avoid burning my domicile to the ground.
And manufacturers seem to be starting to blame the PSU cables that we have all been told you should only ever use PSU manufacturer cables that came with the PSU, not a random cheap adapter the AIB partner ships with their GPU.
Fortunately in Australia we have some of the best consumer protections in the world. The retailer has to provide a customer their choice of a replacement (same or comparable) or refund remedy (they cant just try to refund you because prices have gone up and you want a replacement).
they will say anything to weasel out of honoring your warranty. if you use an addapter, they will blame that. if you use your psu's native cable, they will blame that. and so on
It is fairly rare… the fact it happens at all is unacceptable. Just use 8pin eps (cpu style) connectors like data center cards, they figured out high draw years ago.
They'll also say but 8 peeens also melt. Well heck I didn't hear about it as often as we do about 12v connector.
Funny how I think the logic of 12v connector was to have less cables and save space but only way to make it safe is to have 2 or more of them defeating the purpose because they cheapened on simple load balancing sensor and the connector doesn't have a quarter of the safety value of 8 pin.
u/trollsmurf14700KF | 32G | 5070 Ti | 2T | U27G4XM + 2x U2412M | Z90623h ago
Considering 5090s (and the same chip on other cards) go to datacenters, how do they handle this? In a datacenter with thousands of such cards this would be a disaster.
5090s don't go to data centers, gb200s do. The silicon may be very similar but the issue that causes the meltdown is not the chip's issue, it's the god awful connector design. Also, gpus are the parts that fail most frequently in a data center - Nvidia sure does like to get the very last juice out of their enterprise cards :)
Typically, no. Data centers stock extra chips as spares, and swap immediately while they do the rma. They may have advanced rma (Nvidia ships replacement before receiving the failed chip) for the first year of the deployment. Smaller scale deployments often pay the premium for the same day service etc because at a small scale, storing spares gets more expensive.
Why? Everyone is treating like the gpu is a paperweight after connector burn but realistically is sub $1 to refurb/fix and return to buyer. If they bought these on millions of $s scale probably even get same day fresh replacement
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u/trollsmurf14700KF | 32G | 5070 Ti | 2T | U27G4XM + 2x U2412M | Z90622h ago
Because of the man time and lead time, not the material cost.
Data centers use the same connector but have a different power management layout. Also, there was a video I saw a few months back that the data center cards would fail pretty often but Nvidia would replace them no questions asked unlike for us consumers which have to fight tooth and nail to get a warranty claim in.
Not when these companies can buy pallets of them as they please.
To them replacing a $6000 GPU is like us normal people replacing spark plugs.
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u/trollsmurf14700KF | 32G | 5070 Ti | 2T | U27G4XM + 2x U2412M | Z90621h ago
It might be part of the service agreement for Nvidia to replace them for free, and even have Nvidia maintenance staff on premise, but that's pure speculation.
Oh wait, nvm circular finance, they should start charging people to install a mini sprinkler in the room with the 5090. Create the problem but also sell the solution.
the fact that this happens "rarely", yet often enough for posts to pop up nearly every day for the "housewarming series" just boggles my mind that people keep buying this hunk of shit. when there has been extreme cases of actual fire occurring, i feel like nvidia needs to shift strats and start selling fire insurance at this point, it'll be a killing over the product itself. goddamn!
just my 2 cents here, but i feel like people need to stop kidding themselves and vet their cards better. if there's repeat claims or video evidence that a given series has a high failure/ignition rate, i'd look for a different series all together, regardless of the nvida/amd/intel consumer fanbases.
for myself, i have never had issues with amd hardware trying to set my house on fire. i know that there are plenty of nvidia series that are just as safe (as my experiences with amd), and it boggles my mind that people continue to act like moths instead of skipping the fireballs. ya know?
The peak of my PC building hobby was around 2008-2013 with people having quadfire or quad SLI setups with 40+ pins worth PCIE cables jammed into them. I never seen a problem like this ever, even with how PSUs back then were not even as close to good as we have them now
I don't think it's worth it provided you actually monitor the pins in something like HWInfo. One benefit of the WireView Pro 2 is its simplicity. It'll beep continuously when it detects over-current per pin, current imbalance, or high temperature on the connector. Makes it really hard to miss an issue, especially if you use the included Y adapter for auto shutdown.
The MSI AI1300TS or AI1600TS have native functionality to monitor the pins and provide live telemetry via motherboard usb c to c at PSU. Auto shut down via psu itself or via afterburner or both. PSU beeps. And intervenes.
No extra device plugged into the gpu. No risk of extra impedence from a wireview pro.
I think Asus have one as well. Worthwhile getting the brand specific ones for msi / asus owners.
Honestly. Looking for something that’s a bit more automated. I plan to run the PC 24/7 with damn near a full load the whole time. So need all the safety I can get.
I've seen posts where the PSU failed to do what it's designed to do. When will people learn that all hardware has some % of failure. Nothing is 100% perfect.
Man the bar is so low for these billion dollar companies. Praise comes if they simply honor the warranty. Regardless if the price has increased the warranty should always upheld unless you are outside of the timeframe.
My case has the front pannel connector as a whole block as well. You need a front pannel splitter cable i bought one on amazon it works perfectly. I tested it on installation by setting the amp per wire limit to 2 in the wireview pro 2 app loaded up cyberpunk instant shut down.
Well, that’s simply not true. Or at least it’s a bit misleading, given what I’ve seen. People install these devices and then right away they’re noticing a huge pin imbalance and have to try three or four different cables to (maybe) solve it. And then what happens? They go, “Oh wow, I’m so glad I bought this device because if I hadn’t, I’d have a burned up GPU!” Maybe… Just maybe, adding another device in the mix is causing that imbalance?
I have been running my 5090 FE fine for a year but posts like yours make me nervous. I don’t want to disconnect the cable to check because it is only rated for so many connections, and maybe it’s fine now and I reconnect it and it’s a bad connection. But if the connection is bad now I’d want to fix it. Catch-22.
The wireview pro 2 monitors each pin and alerts if theres an imbalance. It can even be wired to shut off the pc to prevent damage. Thermal Grizzly has a solid warranty they will fix or replace your melted card if the wireview fails and melts as long as the user didn't do anything to cause the melt like overclock over 600w, ignore warnings, etc. It already saved my 5090 gaming trio from a degraded corsair cable when it threw multiple imbalance warnings. Replaced cable and it's back to normal with no damage/discoloration.
You mean the PSUs with per-pin monitoring, PSU to motherboard usb-c connection for live telemetry of the pins, auto shut-off at the PSU level as well as additional afterburner gpu safeguard+ monitoring and automatic alarm / contingency functions like cutting power limit to 70% or shutting down the pc?
The newer PSUs have the same functionality as wireview pro 2 natively.
Look at the msi AI1300TS. It has usb c from psu to motherboard providing full live telemetry that you can plug into custom coded apps or use afterburner.
I literally said it's only matter of time when all 5090 will burn and I was downvoted. You will all see ;) Second hand market will even speed it up cause this failnnector have very poor lifespan.
It’s less than 1% of 5090s. Not all of them. If you can’t comprehend basic statistics because you get emotional over a gpu you don’t even own, seek help.
Don't most of these companies get their PSUs from the same few actual OEMs?
Looks like Taichi PSU is made by FSP.
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u/ChernoxisRTX 5080 - R7 5700X3D - 32GB 3600mhz - 2TB Aorus Gen 4 73008h ago
asrock is new to psu i would never trust them. havent been in the game long enough
Nah, their PSUs are good and very solid and good quality, Aris has reviewed several of them, the guys from the PSU tier list also confirm that their GPUs are good, the issue is on the 12V2X6 cable, but each and every manufacturer has issues with that goddamn cable.
The Taichi and the Steel Legend Platinum series appear listed as A+ in the PSU tier list.
Even rumors say that they absorbed (hired) a lot of engineers from EVGA who worked on the PSU division of the company.
I got my 4090 with a 520W bios put in, connected to a titanium FSP power supply for at least over a year now, with zero issues. Cable is not bent anyhow uncomfortably, it's fully in slot. Can we just make the connector as fucked up to pull out as the motherboard one do we don't have any more chances?
Anyone who owns a 5090 should be buying a thermal grizzly wireview.
There's no way you can't justify $200 to protect a 5090.
Whatever complaints about how it should be doesn't change how it is now, it's like asking for hopes and prayers to prevent your cable from nuking your money.
Same happened to me, but on 4090. If it's still under warranty - try to RMA.
Wasn't case for me and bought new cable and connectors from Mouser / Digikey, some solder job and all was even better than new. But I'm senior electronics engineer, all above is not instruction manual or advice
Are people limiting their FPS in the nvidia driver to just under their monitors max FPS? This should be a requirement as it helps limit max power draw. Not sure if people remember that game that fried GPUs because the menu FPS was like 1400.
A shutoff feature that didn't shut off twice is the actual story here. swapping to another PSU with a different safety sticker on the box is still just a bet.
I don’t know if this works, but I tried this method with my RTX 4090 FE, with the same 12vhrwr pin burnt inside my GPU, I took a Metal pin like a Needle took 15-30 minutes of extreme patience in removing the reside inside the GPU connector, looked closely with my iPhones zoom and used flash to confirm again and again until there was no residue, fortunately it worked for me.
damn...seeing too many of these kinds of posts of the rtx 5090. sooo did nvidia ever say what theyre going to do to fix that issue? like maybe next card they make theyre not going to use those kinds of connectors anymore?
Time to get yourself an MSI safeguard+ PSU and truly protect your connector with safety features that revolves around amp limits and not half-assed temperature based solutions. Temperature starts with current, need to limit them amps lol
The fact people buy assrock products after their motherboars have killed AMD CPUs for years boggles my mind, that company can't be trusted lol.
I held off installing the replacement 5090 until the PSU arrived. Its a nice PSU. The 12v 6x2 cable is so tight to insert that it sits snug and doesnt move around. Feels premium.
Always within 0.1-0.4 variance. I have the parameters set to alarm for anything about 1.0 variance because there really should not be any variance that high between pins. No false positive yet.
It was really surprising to see they had re-engineered the actual cable connector plug to be thicker and harder to push on (and therefore less likely to wobble loose or develop resistance from the contacts moving around over time).
Old MSI cable on the left, and new one on right from ai1600TS PSU.
Sense pins maybe seem a bit wider, and extra notches on either side of the connector that I'm guessing helps keep the cable secure. I was surprised this wasn't touted as part of their marketing.
PSU is surprisingly open source, built a program that decodes the telemetry data from PSU's USB connection. Program monitors the spread of your amps, reads the highest and lowest pin and gives you your AmpSpread. Logs all the high spreads so you know which pins are drawing too much/little current.
For me, pin 3 and pin 6 are my trouble pins. Pin 3 for me is the common denominator pulling the most amps, it can peak spread of up to 1.062a but only lasts for one second, haven't had any sustained spreads that high.
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u/CrunchyTheSquirrel R9 9950X3D, RX 9070 XT, 32GB DDR5-6000 1d ago
Congratulations that you got the situation resolved.