Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 VS Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
▸ WHICH ONE HOLDS UP BETTERBoth land on the same verdict, but Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 scores higher on our scorecard (4.0/10 vs 3.3/10) — see each PixProof's full scorecard for what's behind that gap.
Verdict🔴 BYE THE HYPE🔴 BYE THE HYPE
The RealityWithin weeks of the October 2022 launch, real reports of the 12VHPWR connector melting or burning began appearing, with Nvidia confirming around 50 known cases globally by November 2022 and community-tracked reports continuing well beyond that. A class-action lawsuit alleged Nvidia sold the card with 'a defective and dangerous power cable plug and socket' posing 'a serious electrical and fire hazard.' Independent investigation found the connector required precise, full seating to avoid the failure, with an estimated failure rate around 0.04% -- a small percentage, but on a card sold in large volumes, translating to a real number of actual melted connectors and at least one widely reported case where a pet cat alerted its owner to a smoking, melting connector.Nvidia confirmed that a manufacturing defect affected less than 0.5% of RTX 5090/5090D and RTX 5070 Ti units, each missing one ROP unit -- shipping with 168 instead of the specified 176. Nvidia's own data showed this caused an average 4% graphical performance loss, with worst-case scenarios showing FPS drops of up to 10% in certain games -- a real, measurable shortfall from the advertised specification, not merely a cosmetic labeling issue. The defect was later confirmed to also affect some early-production RTX 5080 units. Nvidia said the manufacturing anomaly had been corrected going forward and directed affected customers to their board manufacturer (Zotac, MSI, Gigabyte, Manli, and others) for replacement. SHORT ANSWERNvidia GeForce RTX 4090: Nvidia's RTX 4090 shipped with a 12VHPWR power connector that Nvidia itself confirmed had melted in roughly 50 known cases by November 2022, prompting a class-action lawsuit alleging a serious electrical and fire hazard, with the connector's sensitivity to partial seating identified as the root cause.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Nvidia confirmed a real manufacturing defect caused less than 0.5% of RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti units to ship with 168 ROPs instead of the specified 176, a shortfall causing an average 4% (up to 10% in some games) real performance loss below the advertised specification.