NVIDIA replaces broken RTX PRO 6000 again, third-party PCIe boards now appear in China
NorthridgeFix has posted an update on the $10,000 RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell card that became unusable after its modular PCIe board snapped during transport. The same repair shop now confirms that NVIDIA has offered a replacement unit for the owner , mirroring an earlier case where a GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition with a damaged PCIe connector was also replaced by the company.
Both failures were caused by physical damage, not manufacturing defects. In the 5090 FE case, the owner broke the small connector between the PCIe board and the main PCB while installing a water block. With the RTX PRO 6000, a YouTuber transported a system with the card still mounted, and the weight of the GPU snapped the PCIe board in half. In theory these modular designs should be straightforward to fix, but NVIDIA does not sell replacement boards, so repair shops cannot source the parts on their own.
This is why the update matters for anyone who owns an RTX 50 Founders Edition or RTX PRO 6000 based on the same three-board layout. If your card suffers similar PCIe board damage, even if it is clearly user error, you should still contact NVIDIA support and ask for a repair or replacement. There are now at least two documented cases where the company agreed to take the card back and provide a new one, despite the damage being caused by the owner. If NVIDIA refuses, you can always escalate the ticket and share their explanation with us.
Source: NorthridgeFix
The underlying problem has not changed, though. The RTX PRO 6000 and RTX 5090 FE use a modular design with a main PCB, a display PCB and a separate PCIe interface board linked by small connectors. That layout helps cooling and should improve serviceability, but without official spare parts it only shifts the weak point to a smaller, more fragile board that cannot be replaced through normal channels. Independent GPU repair centers still have no documented way to buy genuine PCIe boards directly from NVIDIA or its partners .
There is one new development on the parts side. According to Uniko’s Hardware, PCIe boards compatible with this modular design have started to appear on sale in China at around 24 USD per piece. That gives repair services a potential path to bring some of these cards back to life for a fraction of the GPU’s price. At the same time, these boards do not come from an official NVIDIA parts program, so any shop that uses them will need to verify compatibility and reliability on its own, and accept the risk of new failures caused by undocumented hardware.
Also, I’m pretty sure these PCIe boards come from cards that had their GPUs removed for some kind of RTX 5090 64GB/96GB custom AI cards. These are not new parts but Founders Edition models that were taken apart.
Source: Uniko’s Hardware
For now, the safest route for owners of damaged RTX PRO 6000 or RTX 50 Founders Edition cards is still to contact NVIDIA directly and push for an RMA or repair option. The appearance of third-party PCIe boards may help some cases, but until NVIDIA opens a formal spare-parts channel, these modular flagship cards remain difficult to service once that small PCIe board breaks.
Source: Uniko’s Hardware
