YouTubers "fix" melting RTX 5090 power connector by soldering cables directly to PCB

Brazilian YouTubers TecLab have developed a workaround for the thermal failures that plague the RTX 5090 and its predecessor, the RTX 4090. The problem lies in the melting of the 16-pin power connector, which can cause the card to be destroyed. To address this, TecLab soldered the power cables directly to the GPU PCB, bypassing the problematic connectors.

They used a Galax GeForce RTX 5090 D HOF OC LAB XOC, which originally comes with two 16-pin power connectors for extreme overclocking. The team completed the modification in two steps: first, they used adapters to connect the wires from each 16-pin connector to the connector traces on the PCB; then, they removed the heatsink and two 120mm fans cooling the GPU and installed an industrial-strength water cooler to lower the GPU's core temperature.

Although the exact temperature after the modification was not disclosed, the power meter reading from the 12V rail indicated a draw of approximately 600W. This is significant because the Galax HOF OC LAB XOC can handle up to 2,000W, which is much higher than the 575W TDP of standard RTX 5090 cards. TecLab emphasized that their solution is not practical for most gamers and was intended as a sarcastic response to Nvidia's repeated inability to resolve the long-standing issue.

The RTX 5090, which launched in January 2025, has seen numerous complaints about melting 16-pin connectors since its release. One of the earliest reports came in February 2025, followed by additional cases in April and May.