ASRock PSU thermal sensor picks up burning RTX 5090 connector on time
A post in the RTX 5090 Owners Club thread on Overclock.net describes an ASRock ATX 3.1 power supply shutting down after its 16-pin cable reportedly overheated on an MSI RTX 5090 Ventus. User says that he was literally playing with fire because the card was not running in standard configuration.
The user says the card was shunt-modded, water-cooled, and had liquid metal applied . They claim the RTX 5090 pulled about 1350W in benchmarks. After the shutdown, he noticed the GPU-side connector looked darkened and slightly melted. They also said the PSU would not power back on until the cable cooled down.
Keep playing with fire, you will eventually get burned, LOL. Asrock PSU saved my Ventus and shut down and will not power on till cable cooled down…
Ventus might never be the same after this, but it was fun times :)
— motivman
Source: Overclock.net
ASRock markets a native PCIe 12V-2×6 cable with a built-in NTC temperature sensor at the GPU connector. The company says the sensor monitors connector temperature and can trigger protection mode if it exceeds safe limits. According to ASRock, the cable will not transmit power if the temperature is this high (105°C).
This is one example of how PSU vendors are trying to reduce 16-pin failures beyond the connector spec update itself. The 12V-2×6 update focuses on safer detection of incomplete insertion, using shorter sense pins and slightly longer power terminals on updated connectors. Other PSU and GPU vendors also add “Safety Light” indicators, which light up an LED if the cable is not fully seated. This feature has likely prevented some failures, but neither vendors nor users share data on how often it stops a connector from overheating.
At least in this case, the user admitted he was playing with fire, and the card was saved by a simple sensor.
Source: Overclock.net , Uniko’s Hardware
