Nvidia RTX 5000 cards show PCB hotspots that threaten longevity, says Igor's Lab

A hot potato: It's not like Nvidia's RTX 5000 series needs any more negative press, but here we are again. Igor Wallossek of Igor's Lab has discovered a problem that appears to be present in most Blackwell AIB partner cards: local hotspots at the rear of the PCBs. This could potentially lead to the cards being damaged over time due to heavy use. During a sustained "torture loop" on a PNY RTX 5070 OC and Palit RTX 5080 Gaming Pro OC, Wallossek recorded temperature spikes in the power delivery areas of the cards. The RTX 5070 reached 107 °C while the GPU core sat at a much cooler 70°C, and the RTX 5080 Gaming Pro OC peaked at 80.5°C. Wallossek writes that the problem lies with the tightly clustered arrangement of FETs, chokes, drivers and via arrays in the area that funnel hundreds of amps through a postage-stamp-sized patch of copper layers. PCB traces only 35 – 70 µm thick must share the load through stacked power planes, concentrating heat vertically and laterally. While the power ... Read full article.