News RTX 5080 power cable allegedly melts at PSU — Redditor reports another 50-series failure

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So. Problem wasn't replicatable by other testers according to another article here, but both confirmed melted cables (at least I didn't see any more credible reports) were with Loki PSUs, and that one der8auer used with the weird amp distribution?

Which manufacturer makes those PSUs? I know many vendors just rebrand them. Could it be that it is a manufacturing defect in the PSU, at least in part, that only appears with this particular GPU series for whatever reason? Or did they bork something in the connector board of the GPU? But then, why did nobody else see the same behavior? Is it just a small batch of connectors, or more widespread. Feels like this is getting bigger every day right now.
 
"If this was indeed a design problem that’s starting to affect GPUs as they get more power-hungry, then it shows that the hardware parties involved need to upgrade the cable/connector design to avoid issues like these"

Or, Nvidia should focus on better power efficiency... We have already gone through this during the ghz war when CPU heat got out of control.
 
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This is going to sound way out there but with suspected problems relating to power supplies I wonder if changes in case design may be a factor. Many case designs have adopted the power supply shroud or the dual chamber design where there's very little ventilation in the power supply area. So cooling the power supply components is almost totally dependent on the power supply's fan and input/exhaust vents. If ventilation is inadequate and prevents cooling of the power supply jacks and the plugs inserted in them that might be a factor in melting at that end.
 
dwd999 said:
This is going to sound way out there but with suspected problems relating to power supplies I wonder if changes in case design may be a factor. Many case designs have adopted the power supply shroud or the dual chamber design where there's very little ventilation in the power supply area. So cooling the power supply components is almost totally dependent on the power supply's fan and input/exhaust vents. If ventilation is inadequate and prevents cooling of the power supply jacks and the plugs inserted in them that might be a factor in melting at that end.
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Yeah I don't think the general solution should be pointing fans at the PSU output, they shouldn't be getting that hot in the first place. Maybe that they need to put temperature sensors around the connectors to ramp up the internal fan, or just limit power in the first place. Though I don't imagine there are many PSUs that can pump out 600W+ without running the fan.

And it seems like they need some current sensors and circuitry at the GPU end to balance the load. Can't expect the cable to do it.

And that the cables need to be tested for resistance before they get sent out, not just continuity. (Though that might already happen, at least I hope so)

Or they go back to a cable with some overhead and switch to EPS. Dual EPS for the normies and triple EPS for enthusiasts. We would be essentially back where we were with triple 8-pin and that wouldn't be too much of a burden.
 
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KyaraM said:
So. Problem wasn't replicatable by other testers according to another article here, but both confirmed melted cables (at least I didn't see any more credible reports) were with Loki PSUs, and that one der8auer used with the weird amp distribution?

Which manufacturer makes those PSUs? I know many vendors just rebrand them. Could it be that it is a manufacturing defect in the PSU, at least in part, that only appears with this particular GPU series for whatever reason? Or did they bork something in the connector board of the GPU? But then, why did nobody else see the same behavior? Is it just a small batch of connectors, or more widespread. Feels like this is getting bigger every day right now.
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Each of the 12V pins of the connector is connected to a single plane - they are one metal connector both inside the PSU and on the GPU. More amps will get pulled through the path of least resistance.

Because the safety margins of this connector design are so horrifically (erroneously) low, we are seeing the result of those limits being surpassed until physical failure. Pins that are only rated to carry 9A are seeing 23A+ going through them. This is the direct result of a flawed design and is in no way a failure of the PSU.
 
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alceryes said:
Each of the 12V pins of the connector is connected to a single plane - they are one metal connector both inside the PSU and on the GPU. More amps will get pulled through the path of least resistance.

Because the safety margins of this connector design are so horrifically (erroneously) low, we are seeing the result of those limits being surpassed until physical failure. Pins that are only rated to carry 9A are seeing 23A+ going through them. This is the direct result of a flawed design and is in no way a failure of the PSU.
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Well, thanks for needlessly summarizing the issue for me I guess. However, that is quite literally NOT what I was saying. And no, this doesn't proof it's not the PSU. Not one bit.
 
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How about designing the GPUs that don't need to reiinvent and replace every existing standard including case layout, cable heat dissipation and so on.

I personally believe the Asus PSU in question have been apparing frequently likely due to the fact that it's one of the few SFF ready high power PSU rated to be able to handle 5090 power draw. and ppl are buying the 5090 found it's marketed as SFF ready so hurray, why not put it in a SFF build? and once put in the airflow is suboptimal, the card peaks out at the rated max power the PSU can handle, and maybe some cable management pulling inside the SFF case to be able to.. close the cover and bam, here you go the recipe to disaster
 
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I'm getting really intense deja vu to the whole 40 series power connector saga, and people trying to pass the blame off as anything other than the actual connector itself.

Not that I really care overly much. I'm not now, nor ever will be (I expect) in the market for anything close to these products or their ilk.
 
I specifically shopped for a ATX 5.0 PSU and spent big money on it expecting to need the 12VHPWR cable for a 40 or 50 series. Now I'm seriously reconsidering if it's even worth the risk.
 
JamesJones44 said:
If I'm not mistaken, that is the same PSU as the melted cable from the last report?
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I think it is, but I would still like an explanation as to how it could be the PSU's fault.

The six 12V pins are connected to their receptacles inside the connector at the PSU and those receptacles are, in turn, connected or soldered to one supply contact. The PSU can't say, "Give this 12V pin more Amps and give this one less," It's one connector/pin/receptacle as far as the PSU is concerned.
What we are seeing (great example in der8auer's latest video) is electrical engineering 101. The path of the electric current on one or two of those pins has an overall lower resistance than other pins. It could be something as simple as the slightly shorter physical path (e.g. on pin 1) due to it being physically closest to the GPU PCB.
 
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alceryes said:
I think it is, but I would still like an explanation as to how it could be the PSU's fault.
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Just an observation. It may simply be a coincidence due to the popularity of the PSU or possibly a pin defect on the PSU that doesn't make s solid connection to the cable on x number of pins or extra coding on two pins. I doubt either of those would be the cause, but there are so many unknowns with the melting cable issue it's hard to dismiss anything outright at the moment (I'm not suggesting it's the PSU to be clear).
 
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I am by no means an electrical engineer, however we are dealing with multiple cases involving the same type of GPU and the same time of PSU. I think it would be foolish to dismiss the logic of commonality, whether applied to either component.
 
alceryes said:
Each of the 12V pins of the connector is connected to a single plane - they are one metal connector both inside the PSU and on the GPU. More amps will get pulled through the path of least resistance.

Because the safety margins of this connector design are so horrifically (erroneously) low, we are seeing the result of those limits being surpassed until physical failure. Pins that are only rated to carry 9A are seeing 23A+ going through them. This is the direct result of a flawed design and is in no way a failure of the PSU.
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Wouldn't a fuse blow or a circuit breaker trip if 23 amps was going through something designed for 9 amps?
 
KidHorn said:
Wouldn't a fuse blow or a circuit breaker trip if 23 amps was going through something designed for 9 amps?
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Only if it is fused or has a circuit breaker. Not that common for there to be circuit breakers inside of low voltage electronics. Fuses are a thing, but they have to be able to handle quite a bit of power so they don't pop all the time.

PSUs are pretty dumb all things considered and as long as their internal protections aren't impacted they are perfectly willing to supply power. Most common designs now use a single rail, so you don't even have current protections that much.
 
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