RTX 5090 12V-2x6 connector reaches 91.7°C with DLSS 5, 16-pin input peaks at 647W
It is becoming increasingly clear that DLSS 5 requires more power from the GPU. Recent tests conducted by the Korean outlet QuasarZone demonstrate that enabling this neural rendering technology on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 cards leads to a substantial increase in both power draw and thermal output for the power delivery system.
Connector Heat and Power Spikes
The study focused on power consumption and temperatures in Cyberpunk 2077 (4K, Ultra, DLSS Quality) with DLSS 5 enabled. The RTX 5090 Founders Edition showed a significant temperature jump at the 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector. On the side facing the sense pins, temperatures rose from 80.9°C to 91.7°C when the technology was active, compared to 80.9°C without it.
This thermal increase is driven by higher power demands. According to HWiNFO, the average power draw of the RTX 5090 increased from 509.2W to 575.1W. However, PCAT measurements captured even higher spikes: the 16-pin input reached a peak of 646.7W (with an average of 582.7W), approaching the upper limits of the connector's capacity.
Current Limits and Connection Risks
The tests also examined the current flowing through each pin using an ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090. Without DLSS 5, the six pins carried between 6.94A and 7.47A. With the technology enabled, this increased to a range of 7.83A to 8.51A. While all pins remained below the 9.2A specification, a variance of approximately 0.7A was observed between the highest and lowest pins.
A critical finding involves theoretical scenarios where a pin fails to conduct current due to wear or poor contact. While a single pin failure under normal loads would push the remaining pins to roughly 8.9A, the load from DLSS 5 could push that value to approximately 10.1A, exceeding the 9.2A limit and potentially causing hardware damage.
Notably, the thermal camera measurements revealed that the 16-pin connector became the hottest component in the test, reaching 91.7°C, while the RTX 5090 GPU core averaged 83.0°C under the same load.
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