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Users Claim That Nvidia GPUs Are Melting Power Cables

Early adopters of Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card are reporting issues with melting power cables, with at least one report on YouTube and another on Reddit. This situation mirrors an earlier problem with the RTX 4090, where power connectors melted or caught fire, damaging GPUs and power supplies.
Investigations revealed that the 4090’s connector issues were largely due to user error, with 12VHPWR connectors not being fully inserted or bent, creating stress and heat. The PCI-SIG, the standards body for the connector, stated the design was sound and blamed implementation issues. An updated connector, 12V-2×6, which ensures proper seating before delivering power, replaced the 12VHPWR connector in the RTX 50-series cards.
Both connectors aim to deliver significant power to high-end GPUs via a single cable, reducing the need for multiple 8-pin connectors and saving board space. While Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Arm, and others are PCI-SIG members, Nvidia is the primary user of these connectors in its GPUs. AMD and Intel continue using 8-pin connectors, with some Nvidia partners doing the same for lower-end cards like the RTX 4060 and 4070 series.
The two reported RTX 5090 incidents involved third-party cables, one from MODDIY and another from an FSP power supply, rather than Nvidia’s provided 8-pin adapter. It’s too early to determine if the problem lies with the cables, Nvidia, the connector design, or user error, or if it’s simply a coincidence.

Components
AMD Launches AMD RDNA 4 Architecture with New Radeon RX 9000 Series Graphics Cards

AMD today unveiled the highly-anticipated AMD RDNA 4 graphics architecture with the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 graphics cards as a part of the Radeon RX 9000 Series. The new graphics cards feature 16GB of memory and extensive improvements designed for high-quality gaming graphics, including re-vamped raytracing accelerators and powerful AI accelerators for ultra-fast, cutting-edge performance, and breakthrough gaming experiences.
In a YouTube livestream, David McAfee, CVP and GM, Ryzen CPU and Radeon Graphics, AMD, was joined by Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP of GPU Technologies and Engineering, AMD and Chief Software Officer, as well as Andy Pomianowski, CVP of Silicon Design Engineering, AMD, to discuss the outstanding performance and value proposition of the Radeon RX 9000 Series. In a related event in Zhuhai, China, Jack Huynh, SVP of the Client and Graphics Group, AMD, led a regional event for the new products. Huynh was joined by David Wang, SVP of GPU Technology and Engineering, AMD, and Lanzhi Wang, Senior Director of Product Management, AMD. The celebration was also marked by a customer celebration with Darren Grasby, EVP and AMD Chief Sales Officer, AMD; Spencer Pan, President of AMD China, and partners including Asrock, ASUS, Gigabyte, Sapphire, Tul, Vastamore, Veston, and XFX.
“Today, we’re thrilled to unveil the AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series, a significant leap forward in graphics performance powered by our next-generation AMD RDNA 4 architecture,” said McAfee. “These GPUs are designed to meet the demands of today’s games, delivering enthusiast-class gaming experiences to gamers everywhere, while ready to support tomorrow’s innovations. Through the power of advanced AI and Raytracing accelerators, we’re not just improving frame rates – we’re fundamentally enhancing the gaming experience. Offering incredible performance, AI-powered features, and next-gen display support at competitive price points, the Radeon RX 9000 Series delivers exceptional value for gamers looking to upgrade their systems.”
The RX 9000 Series, powered by the new AMD RDNA 4 architecture, offers gamers and creators a powerful blend of performance, visuals, and value. These advanced graphics cards redefine incredibly fast, high-resolution gaming with third-generation raytracing technology enabling realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections to deliver immersive gaming experiences while integrating a suite of AMD features to maximize hardware utilization. Beyond gaming, the RX 9000 Series GPUs leverage new second-generation AI accelerators with up to 8x INT8 throughput per AI accelerator (for sparse matrices) to enhance creative applications and effectively run generative AI applications (vs. RDNA 3). The RX 9000 Series GPUs also implement the newly redesigned AMD Radiance Display Engine & Enhanced Media Engine for broad display support and elevated quality in both recording and streaming.
The Radeon RX 9000 Series unlocks new levels of performance while delivering a suite of new and enhanced features that improve the gaming experience. The Radeon RX 9070 Series offers 16GB of GDDR6 memory, allowing gamers to render the most exciting games of today and tomorrow at max settings. Compared to the previous generation RX 7900 GRE, the latest AMD Radeon RX 9070 is able to deliver over 20% more performance on average when gaming at 1440, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT extending that lead to over 40% on average.
Both graphics cards make smart upgrades for gamers looking to future-proof their systems with a suite of next-gen features that will keep their experiences feeling fresh for years to come. Key features include:
- Unified AMD RDNA 4 Compute Units – Features up to 64 advanced AMD RDNA 4 compute units delivering up to 40% higher gaming performance than the previous-generation AMD RDNA 3 architecture.
High-Performance Raytracing – With 3rd generation Raytracing Accelerators, AMD RDNA 4 is able to deliver over 2x the Raytracing throughput per compute unit when compared to our previous generation. Gamers with the latest AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series are ready for immersive gaming experiences with high-quality graphics, including realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections. - Supercharged AI Acceleration – 2nd Generation AI Accelerators received several enhancements, allowing AMD RDNA 4 to efficiently process advanced AI models much faster than what was possible with RDNA 3, through a combination of additional math pipelines for AI calculations, expanding the capabilities of the AI Accelerator to support new emerging data types such as FP8, and support for inference optimization techniques such as structured sparsity. These changes deliver up to 8x INT8 throughput per AI accelerator (for sparse matrices) per compute unit vs the previous generation.
- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution Technology 4 (FSR 4) – AMD’s new cutting-edge ML-powered upscaling technology delivers high-quality boosted frames under even the most demanding workloads, such as 4K gaming with maximum raytracing settings and will be supported in over 30 games at launch.
- Innovative suite of features through HYPR-RX – Gamers can instantly improve their experience by activating AMD HYPR-RX and the suite of features within AMD Software, including AMD Radeon Super Resolution, AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1, AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, and AMD Radeon Boost. These features can all be tailored to gamers’ hardware and preferences within AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition to drive increased FPS, responsiveness and efficiency.
- AI-Enhanced AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Application – A new suite of software and resources designed to deliver an industry-leading AI user experience with AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards. Keep your drivers and AI software up to date with the new Software Manager. Find the answers to your questions about all things AMD or create free and private text and images with AMD Chat. Discover, download and install new and exciting AMD-partnered AI applications with the App Portal, and leverage AI to improve software quality with the AMD Image Inspector.
- Ready for Next-Generation Displays – AMD Radiance Display Engine supports the latest DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b connections, enabling ultra-high resolutions and refresh rates up to 8K 144Hz, with 12-bit HDR and full REC2020 Color Space for incredible color accuracy. Paired with AMD FreeSync technology, gamers can enjoy tear-free, stutter-free gaming experiences on over 4000 compatible displays, including upcoming 4K 240Hz and 8K 144Hz DisplayPort 2.1 monitors.
Available exclusively on AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards, AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition adds a new easy-to-use AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (AMD FSR 4) Upgrade feature that helps maximize performance at maximum quality in over 30 games at launch, with 75 coming later this year. AMD FSR 4 delivers a substantial image quality improvement over AMD FSR 3.1 upscaling, with the new ML-based algorithm helping to improve temporal stability, better preserve detail, and reduce ghosting.
Utilizing features already built into the AMD FidelityFX API added when game developers integrate AMD FSR 3.1 into their games, AMD FSR 4 enables an easy upgrade for supported FSR 3.1 games and can be combined with existing in-game AMD FSR 3.1 advanced frame-generation and AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2 for ultra-smooth, ultra-responsive gaming at incredible frame rates on AMD Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards.
The new ML-accelerated AMD FSR 4 upscaling algorithm is trained using high-quality ground truth game data on AMD Instinct Accelerators and uses the hardware-accelerated FP8 Wave Matrix Multiply Accumulate (WMMA) feature of the AMD RDNA 4 architecture to ensure maximum upscaling quality while still providing a substantial game performance boost.
AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards are expected to be available from leading board partners including Acer, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, Vastarmor, XFX, and Yeston beginning March 6th, 2025. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT has an SEP of $599, while the AMD Radeon RX 9070 has an SEP of $549.
Components
Cooler Master Launches MasterLiquid Core II

Cooler Master has announced the MasterLiquid Core II, a next-level liquid cooler that comes in both 240mm and 360mm sizes. This latest version of Cooler Master’s MasterLiquid series builds on the excellence of that renowned series of liquid coolers while bringing an array of new features to the table. With a refined G9R dual chamber pump, updated CPU compatibility, and more, the MasterLiquid Core II is an upgrade fit for the next generation.
Key features and benefits of the MasterLiquid Core II include:
- Dual chamber pump: Upgraded design resulting in a compact cooler with superior performance.
- Updated CPU compatibility: The Core II is compatible with all the latest AMD and Intel CPUs.
- Innovative design: An infinity mirror pump cover gives the Core a stellar aesthetic.
- Revamped fans: Brand-new fan blades and revamped visuals deliver outstanding performance with a fresh look.
- Easy installation: Now includes a quick-mount kit compatible with all mainstream processor sockets, along with pre-installed fans.
- Optimum tubing length: 400mm of tubing enables effortless mounting in any orientation.
Components
NVIDIA Announces Blackwell GeForce RTX 50 Series

NVIDIA today unveiled the most advanced consumer GPUs for gamers, creators and developers — the GeForce RTX 50 Series Desktop and Laptop GPUs. Powered by the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, fifth-generation Tensor Cores and fourth-generation RT Cores, the GeForce RTX 50 Series delivers breakthroughs in AI-driven rendering, including neural shaders, digital human technologies, geometry and lighting.
“Blackwell, the engine of AI, has arrived for PC gamers, developers and creatives,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Fusing AI-driven neural rendering and ray tracing, Blackwell is the most significant computer graphics innovation since we introduced programmable shading 25 years ago.”
The GeForce RTX 5090 GPU — the fastest GeForce RTX GPU to date — features 92 billion transistors, providing over 3,352 trillion AI operations per second (TOPS) of computing power. The Blackwell architecture’s innovations and DLSS 4 mean the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU outperforms the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU up to 2x.
GeForce Blackwell comes to laptops with all the features of desktop models, bringing a considerable upgrade to portable computing, including extraordinary graphics capabilities and remarkable efficiency. The Blackwell generation of NVIDIA Max-Q technology extends battery life by up to 40% and allows for thin and light laptops that maintain their sleek design without sacrificing power or performance.
DLSS 4 debuts Multi Frame Generation to boost frame rates by using AI to generate up to three frames per rendered frame. It works in unison with the suite of DLSS technologies to increase performance by up to 8x over traditional rendering, while maintaining responsiveness with NVIDIA Reflex technology.
DLSS 4 also introduces the graphics industry’s first real-time application of the transformer model architecture. Transformer-based DLSS Ray Reconstruction and Super Resolution models use 2x more parameters and 4x more compute to provide greater stability, reduced ghosting, higher details and enhanced anti-aliasing in-game scenes. DLSS 4 will be supported on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs in over 75 games and applications on the day of launch.
NVIDIA Reflex 2 introduces Frame Warp, an innovative technique to reduce latency in games by updating a rendered frame based on the latest mouse input just before it is sent to the display. Reflex 2 can reduce latency by up to 75%. This gives gamers a competitive edge in multiplayer games and makes single-player titles more responsive.
Twenty-five years ago, NVIDIA introduced GeForce 3 and programmable shaders, which set the stage for two decades of graphics innovation, from pixel shading to compute shading to real-time ray tracing. Alongside GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, NVIDIA is introducing RTX Neural Shaders, which bring small AI networks into programmable shaders, unlocking film-quality materials, lighting and more in real-time games.
Rendering game characters is one of the most challenging tasks in real-time graphics, as people are prone to notice the smallest errors or artefacts in digital humans. RTX Neural Faces takes a simple rasterized face and 3D pose data as input and uses generative AI to render a temporally stable, high-quality digital face in real-time.
RTX Neural Faces is complemented by new RTX technologies for ray-traced hair and skin. Along with the new RTX Mega Geometry, which enables up to 100x more ray-traced triangles in a scene, these advancements are poised to deliver a massive leap in realism for game characters and environments. The power of neural rendering, DLSS 4 and the new DLSS transformer model is showcased on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with Zorah, a groundbreaking new technology demo from NVIDIA.
GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs bring industry-leading AI TOPS to power autonomous game characters in parallel with game rendering. NVIDIA is introducing a suite of new NVIDIA ACE technologies that enable game characters to perceive, plan and act like human players. ACE-powered autonomous characters are being integrated into KRAFTON’s PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and InZOI, the publisher’s upcoming life simulation game, as well as Wemade Next’s MIR5.
In PUBG, companions powered by NVIDIA ACE plan and execute strategic actions, dynamically working with human players to ensure survival. InZOI features Smart Zoi characters that autonomously adjust behaviours based on life goals and in-game events. In MIR5, large language model (LLM)-driven raid bosses adapt tactics based on player behaviour, creating more dynamic, challenging encounters.
Use cases span LLMs, vision language models, image generation, speech, embedding models for retrieval-augmented generation, PDF extraction and computer vision. NIM microservices include all the necessary components for running AI on PCs and are optimized for deployment across all NVIDIA GPUs.
Showcasing how RTX enthusiasts and developers can use NIM microservices to build AI agents and assistants, NVIDIA will release a pipeline of NVIDIA NIM microservices and AI Blueprints for RTX AI PCs from top model developers such as Black Forest Labs, Meta, Mistral and Stability.AI. To demonstrate how enthusiasts and developers can use NIM to build AI agents and assistants, NVIDIA today previewed Project R2X, a vision-enabled PC avatar that can put information at a user’s fingertips, assist with desktop apps and video conference calls, read and summarize documents, and more.
The GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs supercharge creative workflows. RTX 50 Series GPUs are the first consumer GPUs to support FP4 precision, boosting AI image generation performance for models such as FLUX by 2x and enabling generative AI models to run locally in a smaller memory footprint, compared with previous-generation hardware.
The NVIDIA Broadcast app gains two AI-powered beta features for live streamers: Studio Voice, which upgrades microphone audio, and Virtual Key light, which relights faces for polished streams. Streamlabs is introducing the Intelligent Streaming Assistant, powered by NVIDIA ACE and Inworld AI, which acts as a cohost, producer and technical assistant to enhance live streams.
For desktop users, the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU with 3,352 AI TOPS and the GeForce RTX 5080 GPU with 1,801 AI TOPS will be available on Jan. 30 at $1,999 and $999, respectively. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU with 1,406 AI TOPS and GeForce RTX 5070 GPU with 988 AI TOPS will be available starting in February at $749 and $549, respectively. The NVIDIA Founders Editions of the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 GPUs will be available directly from nvidia.com and select retailers worldwide.
Stock-clocked and factory-overclocked models will be available from top add-in card providers such as ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, GALAX, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, KFA2, MSI, Palit, PNY and ZOTAC, and in desktops from system builders including Falcon Northwest, Infiniarc, MAINGEAR, Mifcom, ORIGIN PC, PC Specialist and Scan Computers.
Laptops with GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPUs will be available starting in March, and RTX 5070 Laptop GPUs will be available starting in April from the world’s top manufacturers, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, GIGABYTE, HP, Lenovo, MECHREVO, MSI and Razer.