Tests conducted by the Korean outlet QuasarZone on the NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition reveal significant thermal increases when using DLSS 5. During a 20-minute session in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K resolution with Ultra settings, the 12V-2x6 power connector reached 91.7°C on the sense-pin side, compared to 80.9°C without DLSS 5 enabled.
The latch side of the connector also saw a temperature rise, climbing from 77.1°C to 83.4°C. In contrast, the RTX 5080 Founders Edition remained significantly cooler under identical testing conditions, reaching maximum temperatures of 48.6°C and 52.2°C at the respective points.
The temperature spikes correlate with increased power consumption. HWiNFO data shows the RTX 5090 average power draw rose from 509.2 W to 575.1 W with DLSS 5 active. External PCAT measurements recorded even higher figures, with the total board power reaching an average of 593.9 W and a peak of 658.0 W.
Specifically, the 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector on the RTX 5090 drew an average of 582.7 W, with transient power spikes reaching as high as 646.7 W. While transient spikes exceeding 600 W are considered normal, these findings align with earlier reports regarding increased power draw associated with the use of DLSS 5.
