A player noticed a burning plastic smell after playing Crypt of the NecroDancer for about an hour. Upon shutting down and inspecting the PC, they found that the 16-pin power connector on their RTX 5090 had severely melted. Although this indie game, released over a decade ago, has very low system requirements, high-end graphics cards are still not immune to power connector failures.
The player involved is Reddit user UnpluggedUnfettered. Previously, he had been playing Broken Pixel Dungeon, then launched Crypt of the NecroDancer, which has even lower system requirements, hoping to cool down his computer, and set the in-game graphics presets to "Ultra".
About an hour later, a suspicious smell of burning plastic filled the room. The player immediately shut down the computer and opened the case to inspect it. When he unplugged the main power cable from the graphics card, he discovered that the 16-pin connector had suffered irreparable heat damage.
Judging by the appearance, this damage was more than just slight deformation or signs of overheating. A hole had melted through the center of the socket, and the plastic parts of two different ports in the upper row had fused together due to the high temperature. The affected graphics card was a PNY model.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a 2D action rhythm game, so its load on the RTX 5090's compute cores should have been minimal. The cause described points to the power connection: the RTX 5090 has a maximum power consumption of up to 600W under full load. If the 16-pin plug is slightly tilted, not fully inserted, or if the cable exerts mechanical stress on the connector, the effective contact area of the metal pins decreases, leading to increased resistance and the formation of local hotspots. This phenomenon does not require the GPU to be under full load.
To prevent such damage, ensure that the 12V-2x6 or 12VHPWR plug is fully inserted, with no visible gaps between the plug and the socket. The cable should not bend sharply near the connector; maintain at least 35 millimeters of straight distance before bending to avoid continuous stress on the internal pins.
For power cables, it is recommended to prioritize using the original native cables provided by the PSU manufacturer, avoiding adapters or extension cables of unknown origin. Users can also use temperature monitoring adapters like WireView II Pro to observe power delivery status and detect abnormal heating in the connector area early on.