Ah yes, melty cables. We’ve been dealing with them ever since the RTX 4090 pushed the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector (now the 12V-2×6 connector) to its limits. Since then, we’ve heard of numerous cases of melting GPU connectors—check out Uniko’s Hardware on X for many examples—and plenty of attempts at dealing with them.
Now, some modders have said ‘screw it’ to the new 12V-2×6 design, instead modding an RTX 5090 to run on standard 8-pin connectors (via Wccftech). The modders at TecLab fitted three 8-pin connectors to the back of the PCB using “copper plates, cut by hand”, and hooked these up to the front via 24 cables (3x sets of 8).
Once everything was also unlocked to operate at higher power levels, the graphics card was put to the test. And while this was just one batch of tests with one card (and don’t try this at home, folks) the results were fantastic.
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Even before pushing it as far as it eventually goes, the modders were thrilled with the results (machine translated): “It’s getting warmer. It’s still colder than a 12VHPWR connector. It’s colder than the original connector, guys. Where is Nvidia? Call Nvidia, guys. Put the raw footage out there for people to see, otherwise they’ll think it’s a lie. This looks like a lie.”
Don’t worry, TecLab, we’ve got you. You can see the full footage below.
They even manage to get the GPU running over 3,300 MHz in Port Royal benchmark with just two 8-pin cables, showing that a three-cable setup isn’t necessary. (For reference, the stock RTX 5090 boost clock is around 2,400 MHz.) And when it’s running at a slightly lower clock speed than this the cables stay very cool.
This is especially important because one of the reasons why the 12VHPWR cable was deemed necessary by many is because it apparently helped prevent having too many standard 8-pin cables connected. But having said that, I’m currently looking at an RX 9070 XT with 3x 8-pin cables and it doesn’t seem too overboard to my eyes.
Even with one cable, TecLab gets it running at over 3,200 MHz. Though that single cable does hit 91–92 °C, there’s still no melting to be seen.
Saying all this, the modders do push the cables above their recommended spec. Each should have a limit of 150 W, which should mean a maximum power draw of 450 W total. The RTX 5090 has a TDP of 575 W.
But TecLab shows that by unlocking this, the 8-pin cables remain not only stable, but cooler than the 12VHPWR cable, even when they’re pushed above spec. They say, “A connector that the industry determines is 150 W but actually it doesn’t have a firm specification.”
The point here isn’t anything to do with the actual overclock they achieved, rather that they managed to push out more power to the GPU than was needed through 8-pin cables—fewer than three of them, in fact—and still have the cables remain cooler than the usual 12VHPWR cable.
Naturally, Nvidia might not want to overrun the official 150 W spec for 8-pin cables. But when there are melty problems with the alternative, and 8-pins seem to be able to step up without issue, at least if this mod is anything to go by, then why not? “Call Nvidia” indeed.
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