this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025

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120

Der8auer shows GeForce RTX 5090 FE cables with uneven power distribution, finds 150°C hotspot (videocardz.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Article is a summary of der8auer's video. Measurements show 22A/260 watts – nearly half of the card's power draw – going through a single wire heating it up to 150 °C in an open-air test bench.

all 43 comments

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[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago

It's just a bad design and a bad standard.

[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand how the ATX standard hasn't adopted higher voltage rails for GPUs. Higher volts mean fewer amps which means less heat. 44A through an 8 pin connector is going to make a lot of heat. 11A at 48v would be much better.

[–] dukatos@lemm.ee 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Apple did something similar, then they put 48V pin next to 3V pin 🤦

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

That's....sooooooo Apple....FFS 🤦

[–] InnerScientist@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Anyone wanna take bets on how long it takes before there's a lawsuite?

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

I bet a few months.

[–] Gork@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Time for a large busbar connecting the power supply, motherboard, and graphics card?

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 10 months ago

A 48V rail would make more sense. Just like USB-C did to get 240W power delivery over a small cable.

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

There wasn't even anything wrong with the minifit jr 8 pin pcie connectors, the official spec of 150W massively derated. If Nvidia really wanted to cap the number of plugs and not change any specs then the 8 pin EPS connectors are rated at 288W.

[–] N0VERCLOCKER@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If they did that then they likely would end up with melted 8 pin connectors as that derating is a protection against one pin being overused due to small expected differences in resistance on each pin

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I'm not saying to ignore the derating, I'm saying use EPS connectors at their derated 288W.

[+] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world -20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Using custom cables even in that scenario would still lead to cables melting.

It’s from increasing the cable length and therefore the required power draw to draw the required amount to power the device. It already happens with 8pin systems as well, this isn’t unique to the delivery system either.

Using too many extension cords has the exact same affect… it’s like blaming the heater because the cords melted. But no, let’s not blame physics, let’s blame the GPU(heater) -.-

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Now you're really showing how uniformed you are. It's not an extension cable, it's 20cm in length total which is significantly shorter than what comes with standard 12Vhpwr native PSUs at 60-70cm.

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you watch the video?

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

Sure they did...had their eyes crossed, fingers in ears yelling:

AHHHHHHLALALALALALALALAALLALALAAALLALALALAIIIIIIIIIIMNOTLIIIIIIISTENINNNNNG!

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 2 points 10 months ago

Case is ground, and one big +12V pipe through the middle. Or, alternatively, the other way around for theft protection.

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This comment section looks exactly like the one he called out in the video.

[–] missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's mostly just one loud person who very apparently has not actually interacted with the case presented here. Either through ignorance or to purposely deflect the blame from Nvidia with the evidence weighing against them.

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I thought blocking .ml would end the troll-madness, but - apparently I didn't. Well, at least the rest of the comments here show me that I'm not crazy or smth :3

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

Alts are a thing. Seen a bunch of folk with very similar handles and writing from .ml/world/SDF and some smaller instances.

[+] stinky@redlemmy.com -46 points 10 months ago (3 children)

one guy had a bad device

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 28 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that like a third of available stock then?

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Two. Two guys. One of which had cables melting away at casual gaming, the other of which had 150°C reached (and it would go higher over more time) in an open environment.

And even if it's only those two, that's two too many.

Edit: Original video in English

[+] stinky@redlemmy.com -34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why? Products fail all the time. Consumers who spend entire paychecks and stand in lines for hours to buy the newest Product Don't have the right to complain that the product hasn't been vetted yet. Spend your money on something important, not some trendy new gadget for your gaming PC. You can wait one year on the product will be tested and vetted, or it will have been removed from shelves because it was faulty to begin with, and the price will have come down. Your assertion that "two is too many" suggests that these consumers should be protected from their own poor spending decisions and is wrong to do so.

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 15 points 10 months ago

I'm used to consumer protection (laws) ... the kind that, you know, protects you from spontaneous fires, infinitely accelerating and exploding cars or toxic ingredients, especially if those products are supposed to be officially premium products, not bypassing those laws by importing directly from china under false names and Cina Export instead of CE. And in this case, that obviously failed, to a worrying degree.

Consumers should be protected from literal fire hazards.

[–] Thorry84@feddit.nl 9 points 10 months ago

Because Roman showed very clearly in the video the issue isn't the device or the user, it's inherit in the design. Pushing that much current through those small cables is a really bad idea. It's needed to make everything smaller, but it has way too many failure cases. Even a small imbalance can cascade into dumping all that energy in one little cable, causing the plastic to melt and burn.

[+] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world -36 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Wasn’t the one using a custom cable? Most of these are user error.

Edit, Jesus guys, this is basic electricity principles…

Adding length to electrical cables increases the power draw, adding connections increases resistance, which increases power draw.

So yeah, let’s add cables and connections that add draw and be shocked when it fucks up. Dude who made the video is just an idiot that doesn’t understand the base issue. It’s not the cards or adapter, it’s the fricken cable even though the guy doesn’t understand how voltage works apparently….

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

That's the point: It's explicitly not. Both where very aware of the issues and checked the connection multiple times. Also, if you're talking about custom cables, which cables would not be custom? The only official cable is the adapter from nvidia, all others are 3rd-Party. Roman (der8auer) even uses an on-brand cable, explicitly says and shows the connection and says he tried to push it in further multiple times during the test.

So no, it's most of the time not user error.

Edit: Original video in English

[+] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world -31 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

If you’re not pushing the connecter in right or running it in a way that you pinch a cable, that’s user error. You’re creating hot spots by not connecting it correctly. That can only be described as a user error.

And yes the first was an off the shelf third party custom cable… Linky

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

- That's what they made sure to check multiple times. That's the points. It's exactly what not happened, everything was connected correctly
- Every cable is a thid party custom cable. The only exception may be a cable from NVidia themselves, which is only an adapter from 3*8Pin to 12VHPWR - there is literally no first or second party 12VHPWR cable. So what should they use instead - nothing? Wire it up themselves? That would be the only non-third party cable they could have. And in both cases, the cables where very high quality. So no Aliexpress crap.

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Adding length to electrical cables increases the power draw, adding connections increases resistance, which increases power draw.

The custom cable was smaller than the stock cable for a ITX case.

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is addressed in the video...

[–] missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

There are already two 5090 FE affected by this just in the video.