8 minutes ago, Luke said:

I'm not sure why you are so insistent on blaming solely nVidia here

Probably because I didn’t (“one of many”), but nVidia were the first to bring about this connector.  Like you said, the specifications are worked on far in advance … nVidia elected to NOT wait and push the safety envelope of existing spec at the cost of the consumer … that is solely nVidia’s blame.  

So yes, agree on time scale which is why nVidia should have used their influence the moment they set a design target and had a good idea of power consumption (which would have been a few years ago).  But as you pointed out, specs move slowly and nVidia didn’t want to wait.

I get they wanted to go to market sooner rather than later, but I don’t find that good for consumers … even more so when the GPUs are made “scarce” to “retail” customers as to trigger price inflation.  All within nVidia’s control, so again they deserve the blame they created.  The unfortunate reality that retail GPUs make up 7-15% of nVidia’s revenue … by choice not demand.

On 7/22/2025 at 5:19 PM, KL Oo said:

Not sure the cooling solution can be blamed for what is, evidently, a very widely known design problem with power delivery. But well see....

I agree with you 100%. Shamefully some manufacturers/retailers will use any loophole to get out of taking responsibility for an obvious design fault.

.

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by hangar

On 7/22/2025 at 11:03 AM, Nuno Pinto said:

Each 5080 or above is an accident waiting to happen

So,  the 5080's are also prone to melting? How about the 5070's, or should I just with AMD for my new build this year?

19 hours ago, hangar said:

should I just with AMD for my new build this year?

AMD 9070 XT 16GB with undervolt will out perform a nVidia 5080 16GB in MSFS 2024 … should save you about $400.  It has taken a while for AMD to get their drivers performing their best with 9070 XT in various titles.  But the key is to undervolt the 9070 XT to get more performance at less heat/power.

On 7/24/2025 at 10:21 AM, somiller said:

I agree with you 100%. Shamefully some manufacturers/retailers will use any loophole to get out of taking responsibility for an obvious design fault.

Yeah thanks - From initial conversations with the retailer it sounds like PNY are saying the warranty is void because I installed a water block on the card. Nobody is denying the issue with the card has nothing to do with the waterblock and is a known fault....they're just looking for a way out of the warranty. Anyway, its still sitting with PNY for a formal response... well shall see.

8 hours ago, KL Oo said:

Yeah thanks - From initial conversations with the retailer it sounds like PNY are saying the warranty is void because I installed a water block on the card

Unfortunately, I would have expected that.  Most cards have stickers over the screws that if broken will void warranty.  It’s somewhat valid to void … for example, the stock cooling solution could also be driving air cooling over those main input PCB trace lines where as the water cooling block would only address VRM, memory modules and GPU, zero cooling on the main power inputs and possibly only cooling one side of the PCB (aka not a full coverage front and rear water block).

Most water blocks I’ve used in the past don’t address power line inputs at all because they haven’t needed to until now.  I have a water block for my PNY 5090 also, but elected to NOT install it after looking at contact pad points and I noticed nothing was near the primary power inputs lines and they would not get any cooling at all.

In addition, if the 5090 is optimized to work off thermal readings of the GPU it could be allowing more power because the water block is providing for better cooling on the GPU than default air setup.

I do feel for you, but I can see why PNY would void the warranty. 😞 

On 7/22/2025 at 3:28 PM, KL Oo said:

Well, after only two months of use, my water cooled PNY 5090 suffered a fate that seems to have affected a number of 5090s...and it melted.

Sitting there there playing Civilisation V of all things (hardly demanding) I smelt burning and took about 30 seconds to locate it coming from the PC. Shut down and noted that several of the wires on the 12VHWPR Cable had melted. Unfortunately the plastic had also melted into the 5090 socket, rending the card unusable.

This was with a Montech Titan 1200W power supply using all the OEM cables. Not sure what else I could have done to prevent this occuring.

Biggest PITA nowis having to remove the water block, re-pacakge the card in its original cooler, send it back to the retailer and wait for them to "assess" it.

For what its worth, the PC had shown no signs of trouble at all - Had been running wonderfully. The cable was fitted straight and not bent at all. Goes to show, stuff happens!

https://imgur.com/a/EOGl3e7

https://imgur.com/XnJ4Ktp

 

 

 

word not allowed, sorry that this happened to you hey. Nvidia seriously has to get their s*** together.

Can I ask if you were running any power limits and undervolts? Not that it guarantees prevention of melting but was just curious.

Thanks 

No, I've since learnt that undervolting is a thing and if I get another 5090 I'll be doing that. Not sure how if effects performance but from what I've read it seems undervolting is possible with minimal or no performance loss. 

12 hours ago, KL Oo said:

No, I've since learnt that undervolting is a thing and if I get another 5090 I'll be doing that. Not sure how if effects performance but from what I've read it seems undervolting is possible with minimal or no performance loss. 

Yeah, I was thinking if mine ever melts, I'm getting a 7900XTX and wait for if AMD ever makes a 32GB VRAM GPU or for when old mate Jensen decides to fix things with the 60 series.

Your rig looks super high spec though haha