A PC enthusiast has created a DIY “RTX 5090 Countermeasures” system to prevent thermal damage to GPU power connectors. Redditor Electronic_Ear6797 showcased their cabling spaghetti creation in an eye-popping gallery earlier today. However, we think the system, designed to prompt the PSU to power down if an overcurrent event is sensed, would make Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) envious. Others may prefer to consider off-the-shelf power monitoring solutions, such as the WireView GPU series from Thermal Grizzly.
The potential for thermal damage occurring in systems packing high-power graphics cards remains a clear and present danger in mid-2025. A swell of melting power connector reports arrived alongside the Nvidia RTX 4090 in late 2022, and confoundingly continued with the next-gen RTX 5090 launched at the start of this year.
With clearly not enough action being taken by component designers and makers to ensure a PC doesn’t self-combust, some people will feel the need to take things into their own hands. This is the void where Electronic_Ear6797’s cabling countermeasures were conjured up.
RTX5090 Countermeasures for Connector Thermal Damage from r/nvidia
On the specs list, we can see typical off-the-shelf PC parts from well-known brands. There’s a Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5090 AMP Extreme Infinity GPU, and a Corsair HXi Series HX1500i PSU. One of Corsair’s 12VHPWR cables has the delicate job of ferrying watts between these two components.
Further on the list are some clues to the construction of the ‘RTX 5090 countermeasures’ system, though. We see there is a Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC FX3UC-16MR/D-T PLC, a Mitsubishi Electric MELSEC FX3UC-4AD×2 analog unit, a QNHCK2-16×6 current sensor, and a G7L-2A-B DC24 (64-3375-02) power relay squirreled among the nest of cabling.
While some commentators were appreciative of the meisterwerk presented by Electronic_Ear6797, others were less enamored with the design and aesthetics. Yet more social media suggestions asked why a simple fuse system wasn’t preferred, or why using one of Thermal Grizzly’s neat WireView products wasn’t sufficient.
If the ‘RTX 5090 countermeasures’ system works as intended and prevents a power pin-spiked meltdown, the work will have been worthwhile. However, it has sometimes proven difficult for even seasoned overclockers and experts to replicate cable melting problems intentionally. In other words, the Redditor might never have experienced cable melting issues with this system anyway. Though it is better to be safe than sorry.
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