The $4,000 "Water Heater": YouTuber Pushes 750W Through a 600W 12V-2x6 Connector on an Asus ROG Matrix RTX 5090
In a feat that borders on the audacious, renowned German overclocker Roman Hartung, widely recognized on YouTube as der8auer, has achieved the seemingly impossible: successfully delivering a staggering 750 watts of power to an Asus ROG Matrix RTX 5090 graphics card, utilizing *only* a 12V-2x6 connector, typically rated for a mere 600 watts. This daring experiment pushes the boundaries of what's considered safe and feasible in the high-performance PC hardware world.
Bypassing Standard Power Delivery Protocols
What makes this exploit particularly remarkable is that der8auer managed this power surge without resorting to common overclocking modifications like resistor shunt-faking or altering the graphics card's BIOS, which officially supports up to 800 watts. The standard procedure for unlocking the full 800W potential of the RTX 5090 involves a dual-pronged approach: utilizing both the 12V-2x6 connector and the BTF edge connector on the motherboard, often in conjunction with an adapter like the GC-HWPR. Without both, the card is capped at 600 watts.
The Ingenious (and Risky) Circuitous Route
Hartung's innovative solution involved a clever workaround to trick the graphics card into believing it was receiving the necessary signals for higher power delivery. His initial step was to bridge the adapter's contacts to simulate a motherboard connection, specifically by shorting the "presence" and "ground" pins. This provided a false positive, but it wasn't enough to unlock the full power potential.
Through meticulous measurement of resistance between the 12V-2x6 pins and the smaller BTF pins, der8auer identified two crucial lines responsible for unlocking the higher power limit. By carefully bridging these specific contacts, he effectively bypassed the BTF connector's current limitations. The result? The graphics card, tricked into believing it had the full BTF power connection, activated its 800W power configuration, even though the BTF connector itself wasn't actually passing any significant current.
The Alarming Results and a Stark Warning
The immediate aftermath of this modification was dramatic. According to the GPU Tweak software, the card reported approximately 700 watts of power draw, with peaks reaching an astonishing 750 watts, all funneled through that single, stressed 12V-2x6 cable. The sheer intensity of the current draw was evident: each pin experienced over 10 amps, the connector's status LED glowed an ominous red, and Hartung himself noted that the cable was noticeably warm to the touch.
Der8auer himself was quick to emphasize that this was purely a technical demonstration, an extreme experiment, and emphatically *not* a recommendation for practical use. He explicitly stated that this configuration pushes both the connector and the cable far beyond their designed specifications. To underscore the peril, he didn't even subject the card to a demanding 3DMark benchmark. This experiment stands as perhaps one of the most perilous graphics card modifications seen to date. It's a sobering reminder that even without exceeding the nominal 600W threshold, 12-pin connectors are notoriously prone to melting. Considering the Asus ROG Matrix RTX 5090 commands a price tag exceeding $4,000, the potential for catastrophic failure is an incredibly unwelcome prospect, even for the most intrepid enthusiasts.
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