A Reddit user reports that his ZOTAC RTX 5090 Solid edition GPU died in a cloud of smoke after less than five minutes of gameplay, but the 16‑pin power connector — the usual suspect in recent GPU failures — was completely untouched.
He was playing the recently released Black Flag Resynchronized when the card made a loud pop and crackling sound, followed shortly by smoke.
He had installed the latest drivers after installing the game, and the entire incident unfolded within minutes of starting to play, according to the Reddit post.
The 16‑pin connector on the GPU was found in fine condition, which sets this case apart from many other card failures linked to connector melting or burning.
A Burn Mark Where It Wasn’t Expected
Instead of damage at the connector, a burn mark was visible on the small gold‑finger tail of the card.
The Redditor shared photos showing the mark, and analysis from @unikoshardware points to the MLCC array — a set of multilayer ceramic capacitors — as the area where something short‑circuited.
The exact cause remains unclear, but the short circuit appears to have occurred near that region.
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Some users suggested that a crack in the circuit board could have triggered the failure.
The MLCC array is a standard component on many GPU boards, used for filtering and voltage regulation, and it is not typically a failure point on its own.
The burn mark is concentrated at the tail end of the gold finger, which is unusual for a component failure.
GPU Sag and a Possible Crack in the Board
The crack in the circuit board, if that is what happened, could have been caused by GPU sag — the tendency of heavy graphics cards to droop under their own weight over time.
The ZOTAC RTX 5090 Solid is a large card, and multiple commenters on the thread pointed to sag as a likely contributor to the damage.
GPU sag has been a known issue in the PC building community for years, but it has rarely been linked to catastrophic failures like this one.
Most cards can handle some degree of sag without damage, but the weight of the 5090 may push the limits of what the PCB and slot can tolerate.
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Builders sometimes use brackets or stands to offset the weight, though not everyone does.
The user will only know for sure after submitting the card for an RMA.
The post does not indicate whether ZOTAC has responded yet or what the warranty process might look like for this specific case.
The board is dead.
The incident adds to a growing list of RTX 5090 cards that have encountered problems, though most previous cases involved the 16‑pin connector.
This one is different, and it points to potential issues that go beyond the power interface.
For the Redditor, it was a short gaming session that ended in smoke.