Gigabyte wouldn’t make RTX 5090 with two 16-pin power connectors, so overclocker made their own
Overclocker sugi0lover added a second 12V-2×6 (16-pin) power connector to a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE WB and reports that both connectors work under load. Gigabyte’s own specs for the WATERFORCE WB list a single 16-pin power connector and a 1000 W PSU recommendation, but some RTX 5090 PCBs appear to have pads for a second connector footprint.
Sugi0lover’s measurements at a total 600 W load show the original connector carrying 369W and the added connector carrying 231 W . That works out to about 61.5% on the first cable and 38.5% on the second. What this means is that the default power limit was that neither connector crossed 400 W in this setup.
Source: sugi0lover
A test with 1521W was also made
Since it’s an overclocker that we are talking about, a 1521W test was also made . In this case one of the connectors pulled 936W and the second pulled 585W. Yes, that’s nearly 1000W on one connector.
Regardless of whether the total power is high or low, the primary connector carries about 61.5% and the second connector about 38.5%.
In the extreme test case below, where I intentionally pulled 1521 W, the primary connector delivered 936 W and the second delivered 585 W. At a total of 600 W, the primary connector delivered 369 W and the second delivered 231 W.— sugi0lover
Dual-connector RTX 5090 designs already exist in the extreme overclocking niche, including GALAX’s RTX 5090D HOF variants that ship with dual 16-pin inputs and firmware aimed at four-digit power limits. Gigabyte did present an enthusiast-class AORUS 5090 GPU at CES 2026 , but it’s not using two connectors, rather it focuses on its new design and cooling. That model also uses NVIDIA’s Founders Edition PCB.
On one hand, it seems crazy that people are willing to risk destroying RTX 5090 cards right now, but on the other hand, who would try this if not an overclocker? From my understanding, the goal is not to run at 1000 W all the time, but only for record-breaking attempts.
Source: Overclock.net , Uniko’s Hardware
