Reports of Bricked NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5090D Surge

Draugoth

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According to widespread user reports from Chinese tech forums and Reddit communities, multiple RTX 5090 and 5090D graphics cards are failing permanently after standard driver installation. The issue affects both the standard RTX 5090 and the export-modified 5090D variant released for the Chinese market on January 30th. Users report consistent failure patterns: upon initial driver installation, displays go dark, and systems permanently lose the ability to detect the GPU through both DisplayPort and HDMI interfaces. Hardware failures have been documented across multiple board partners, with Colorful, Manli, and Gigabyte cards showing identical symptoms. Third-party vendor reports sometimes indicate potential IC burn damage, suggesting hardware-level failure rather than recoverable software issues.

Some investigations point to PCIe Gen 5 implementation as a possible root cause. The RTX 5090 series represents NVIDIA's first fully Gen 5-compliant GPU architecture, introducing new signal integrity challenges. Some users report temporary mitigation by forcing PCIe 4.0 mode in BIOS settings, though this workaround remains unverified. Additional complications arise from modern motherboard designs that share PCIe lanes between M.2 storage and graphics slots. The failure pattern appears consistent across both domestic and international markets. On r/ASUS, users report identical detection failures persisting through CMOS resets and system rebuilds. Chinese forum documentation shows systematic failures across multiple board partner implementations, suggesting a fundamental architecture or driver compatibility issue rather than isolated manufacturing defects. NVIDIA has not issued official guidance on the failures.

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"Third-party vendor reports sometimes indicate potential IC burn damage, suggesting hardware-level failure rather than recoverable software issues."
Episode 7 Wow GIF by Wrexham AFC
 
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Reminds me of the 12vhpwr connector issue when the 4090 launched
I guess there are benefits to not being first in line these days
 
They should send those fail cards to Steve from Gamernexus for further investigation.
 
Remember when everyone said that the 12VHPWR cable issues melting connectors on cards is because they just didn't plug them in properly?

Yeah it was such a minor issue that people designed and developed the 12v-2x6 to completely replace it. You know, because entire product lines are replaced due to a small amount of user error.

No it was just actually a problem, so this does not surprise me at all on a card that demands even more.
 
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There's always a few faulty cards in a batch, so where the batch is 19 that's
gonna lead to a pretty big failure rate.

It is a bit odd that Nvidia massively struggled with 450w going through a 4090 and then thought, 'oohh - let's go with 575w next time!!'
 
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I'm not buying this being a widespread issue.

You always hear about it, but it's never as widespread as people want you to believe.
 
That's a huge issue if true; bricked by doing something with the bios? Ok shit happens, but bricked from something as routine and thoughtless as a driver update? Massive problem, regardless if this is actually affects a large amount of cards or not.
 
But fast enough to click on the thread and first to reply. Whom are you kidding?

Fast enough? This isn't a High Noon showdown.
  • He posted his thread at 7:33AM.
  • I responded at 7:35AM.
It's not like it was a long read. And who are you exactly, Nvidia PR?
 
Not even a shred of FOMO in the wake of this disastrous launch.
C'mon. Don't you wish you had the joy of seeing a black screen after installing and updating the card you scored when 1000's failed to get and you already shipped the 4090 you sold on ebay?

Seriously we are now in the era of not needing to update but having to pay XX% more for a GPU that does <XX% better than the one you are upgrading from.
 
Hope gaffers don't get affected with this issue. I'd be sore as fuck if I paid that much money for a graphics card to end up with a brick.
 
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