Making a graphics processing unit with 1.8 terabits of memory bandwidth, 24,576 CUDA cores, 768 tensor cores and 192 ray-tracing cores, capable of produding 1636.76 gigatexels per second? Easy! Pushing 500 watts down 18 gauge braided wire without burning the house down? Hard.
"I noticed the burning smell playing Battlefield 5," Ivan 6953 wrote on Reddit. "The power draw was 500-520W. Instantly turned off my PC – and see for yourself…The cable was securely fastened and clicked."
The Verge reviewed online discussion; the consensus seems to be that it's not a defective cable, per se, but fundamental problems with the design being implemented.
Spanish YouTuber Toro Tocho has experienced the same burnt cable (both at the GPU and PSU ends) with an RTX 5090 Founders Edition while using a cable supplied by PSU manufacturer FSP. Plastic has also melted into the PCIe 5.0 power connector on the power supply. MODDIY also responded in a Reddit thread, ruling out the "possibility of a defective cable or manufacturing error" and offering to cover the cost of repair if Nvidia and Asus don't honor their warranties. YouTuber der8auer has also examined the Reddit poster's equipment in person, and ruled out any form of user error in the process. He's also found that this could be related to a current distribution problem with RTX 5090 Founders Edition models instead. Either way, nobody should be blaming 12VHPWR issues on end users.
