NVIDIA RTX 5090 Graphics Card Exploded During Editing and Bent the Radiator

You don't have to load up your graphics card with games to run into problems. One owner of an NVIDIA RTX 5090 reported that a capacitor exploded right in the middle of video editing. A Reddit user under the nickname RoboDogRush said that late at night, he heard a sound similar to a firecracker. After that, the screen went dark, smoke came out of the case, and there was a burning smell.

An inspection showed that the burnt-out capacitor exploded with such force that it damaged the radiator.

The Warranty Still Worked

According to the owner, the GPU temperature rarely rose above 70°C, the cooling system was working properly, and power was supplied by a Super Flower Leadex III 1300W 80+ Gold unit with a complete cable set. Despite this, the video card still failed.

PNY initially confirmed the warranty claim and a week later announced that it would replace the device.

A Widespread Problem or a Failure of a Specific Unit?

Incidents with the RTX 5090 are being discussed online more and more often. Users note that flagship graphics cards costing $2,000 sometimes burn out due to power connectors, and in other cases, due to problems with the board itself and its components.

Journalists joke: “This is not the exciting experience you would expect from a top-of-the-line card. Or maybe this is what real neural rendering looks like?”

Experts suggest that the cause was a defect in a specific unit or poor-quality components, but there is no official explanation yet.