Smoke Coming From 3090

BENBOBBY · 8 Jul 2025 at 16:34

I have an ASUS ROG Strix 3090 24GB OC Edition' graphics card. While gaming last night my computer randomly switched itself off. When I tried powering it back on nothing happened. At first I thought maybe my PSU had died.

So I left it unplugged overnight and when I tried powering it up today smoke started coming up from the graphics card with a strong smell of electrical burning so immediately turned it off.

I assume this means the card is completely dead?! I am reluctant to test it any more in case it burst fully into flames or short circuits and damages any other components. I’m gutted given the high price of it.

But I curious what could have actually caused this? Could it be a faulty riser cable, motherboard, cables or power supply that give it too much voltage and fried it?!

I recently got a new riser cable by Glotrends from Amazon. After installing it I noticed the RGB lights on my graphics would randomly flash but didnt think too much of it. But was this a sign my graphics card was dying and/or the cable was faulty?

Thanks.

Ayahuasca · 8 Jul 2025 at 16:36

It's safe to upgrade now.

It's difficult to know but that new riser cable may have played a part. Feel for you if it's out of warranty!

Begbie · 8 Jul 2025 at 16:58

Are you sure the smoke didn't come from the riser and not the gpu?

Joxeon · 8 Jul 2025 at 17:05

Begbie said:
Are you sure the smoke didn't come from the riser and not the gpu?

definitely worth checking out the cable and the PSU first, if those seem ok and the GPU is out of warranty I’d be tempted to take it apart and see if there is any visible damage or burn marks.

Alt0153 · 8 Jul 2025 at 17:50

he set the magic smoke free! that was the 3090 soul being reabsorbed by jensen

Raiden85 · 8 Jul 2025 at 18:18

I had the same problem with the exact same card, but about 1 year after it launched. I was in Forza Horizon 5 at the time, while sitting in the menu, so the GPU wasn't even being loaded that much, my PC immediately shut off without warning with nothing strange beforehand on screen, and you could immediately smell burning electronics. For me, it seemed to be coming from around the back area of the card when I removed it to smell it. Thankfully, a competitor gave me a brand-new replacement within a few days, so my card was most certainly very dead. Strange, because core temps were great, and VRAM temps were very good, just happened completely out of nowhere, card was inserted directly into the slot when it happened.

For me, it never affected any other component thankfully, PSU was fine (Corsair AX1600i) even all my cables were absolutely fine as I was using a cablemod extension adapter. When I had my replacement card, I inserted the same cable and ran that card for 24/7 until the 4090 launched and apart from a motherboard upgrade I'm still using the same PSU and extension adapter cable around 3yrs or so on.

That issue put me right of Asus GPU's as that was the first card I've ever had in about 23yrs of PC gaming to blow up on me, just glad it never took anything else with it. I was on AM4 at the time, so I had no onboard GPU or other dedicated GPUs to test with, had to buy a slot powered 1050 Ti, thankfully my system ran great with that card and when the replacement card came I was able to rule out a bad PSU or cables.

deviation · 8 Jul 2025 at 18:31

Raiden85 said:
I had the same problem with the exact same card, but about 1 year after it launched. I was in Forza Horizon 5 at the time, while sitting in the menu, so the GPU wasn't even being loaded that much, my PC immediately shut off without warning with nothing strange beforehand on screen, and you could immediately smell burning electronics. For me, it seemed to be coming from around the back area of the card when I removed it to smell it. Thankfully, a competitor gave me a brand-new replacement within a few days, so my card was most certainly very dead. Strange, because core temps were great, and VRAM temps were very good, just happened completely out of nowhere, card was inserted directly into the slot when it happened.

For me, it never affected any other component thankfully, PSU was fine (Corsair AX1600i) even all my cables were absolutely fine as I was using a cablemod extension adapter. When I had my replacement card, I inserted the same cable and ran that card for 24/7 until the 4090 launched and apart from a motherboard upgrade I'm still using the same PSU and extension adapter cable around 3yrs or so on.

That issue put me right of Asus GPU's as that was the first card I've ever had in about 23yrs of PC gaming to blow up on me, just glad it never took anything else with it. I was on AM4 at the time, so I had no onboard GPU or other dedicated GPUs to test with, had to buy a slot powered 1050 Ti, thankfully my system ran great with that card and when the replacement card came I was able to rule out a bad PSU or cables.

I have had the same thing, everything was fine, then I was doing nothing on the desktop and I had a horrible burnt electrical whiff! Shut down everything and it was the GPU, that went straight in the bin, and the rest of the system still lives till this day

FWIW I wasn't running any riser cable though, just plugged straight into the board itself.

I think OP will be fine as long as he doesn't test the GPU again - maybe buy/borrow an old/cheap GPU just to test posting with?

Diagro · 9 Jul 2025 at 13:10

Its dead.
Still in warranty?
If its not badly burnt, plenty of services online who may be able to replace dead components for you

BENBOBBY · 17 Jul 2025 at 01:48

Thanks for all the replies. Yeh unfortunately the smoke was coming from the 3090 itself. I'll definitely be staying clear of cheap riser cables from Amazon in future. Still gutted about it but at least I got a decent amount of use out of it especially during lockdown! Ive been looking into a 5080/5090s to replace it, but some of the prices are insane lol

Diagro · 17 Jul 2025 at 07:04

BENBOBBY said:
Thanks for all the replies. Yeh unfortunately the smoke was coming from the 3090 itself. I'll definitely be staying clear of cheap riser cables from Amazon in future. Still gutted about it but at least I got a decent amount of use out of it especially during lockdown! Ive been looking into a 5080/5090s to replace it, but some of the prices are insane lol

Locate the burn.
Upload pic here

deviation · 17 Jul 2025 at 07:43

BENBOBBY said:
Thanks for all the replies. Yeh unfortunately the smoke was coming from the 3090 itself. I'll definitely be staying clear of cheap riser cables from Amazon in future. Still gutted about it but at least I got a decent amount of use out of it especially during lockdown! Ive been looking into a 5080/5090s to replace it, but some of the prices are insane lol

I personally would never trust a third party cable that delivers power, you've only got to look at all those 'cablemod' PSU cables causing potential fires and problems, F that! It's never worth it for looks or a cheap case etc IMHO. Plus it risks voiding your warranty if they find out.

hlennie · 17 Jul 2025 at 21:00

just dont under stand why people just not using house insurance. my 3090 died pay out was 95% cost of my 5090

TrojanWhore · 17 Jul 2025 at 21:59

deviation said:
I personally would never trust a third party cable that delivers power, you've only got to look at all those 'cablemod' PSU cables causing potential fires and problems, F that! It's never worth it for looks or a cheap case etc IMHO. Plus it risks voiding your warranty if they find out.

Back when I was mining, I had a bunch of cheapo 1x risers, one of which managed to fry not just one, but all the PCIe slots on a motherboard. Wasn't a huge loss as it was just an old one I had knocking about and replaced it with a cheap AM2/3 board with more slots, but definitely wouldn't risk anything I cared about on cheap cables any more.
(although you would have thought those cablemod ones should have been ok, I still blame nV for that one and will continue to buy cards with standard 8pin connectors for as long as that's possible... or until a new better cable emerges)

TrojanWhore · 17 Jul 2025 at 22:00

hlennie said:
just dont under stand why people just not using house insurance. my 3090 died pay out was 95% cost of my 5090

Did it not effect your premiums? Also, people who live in rented or shared accomodation wouldn't need building insurance and may not have good reasons to have a separate contents policy

deviation · 18 Jul 2025 at 00:49

TrojanWhore said:
Back when I was mining, I had a bunch of cheapo 1x risers, one of which managed to fry not just one, but all the PCIe slots on a motherboard. Wasn't a huge loss as it was just an old one I had knocking about and replaced it with a cheap AM2/3 board with more slots, but definitely wouldn't risk anything I cared about on cheap cables any more.
(although you would have thought those cablemod ones should have been ok, I still blame nV for that one and will continue to buy cards with standard 8pin connectors for as long as that's possible... or until a new better cable emerges)

Imagine if you'd of had 3/4 3090's, or if the 4090 had been out, F that!
I will never understand taking this kind of risk for a dick waving factor picture in a 'show us what you've got' build thread post.
I'll stick to it being a bit ugly but using the OEM cables the PSU provided, versus them being knocked out from Christ knows where, with the questionable hit and miss quality control from XYZ factory, no thanks!

TrojanWhore · 18 Jul 2025 at 01:03

deviation said:
Imagine if you'd of had 3/4 3090's, or if the 4090 had been out, F that!
I will never understand taking this kind of risk for a dick waving factor picture in a 'show us what you've got' build thread post.
I'll stick to it being a bit ugly but using the OEM cables the PSU provided, versus them being knocked out from Christ knows where, with the questionable hit and miss quality control from XYZ factory, no thanks!

Didn't take any cards with it thankfully and this was around 2014, a couple of 280X and some older AMD cards.

I'm quite happy not bothering with risers for now, although I think they'd also be fine assuming decent quality ones.
I've also never had issues with ATX/EPS/PCIe cable extensions that I've used and will use them again.

What I don't trust is the 12VHPWR cables, even the nV or PSU OEM versions have had issues, it's just a poorly designed connector imo.

hlennie · 18 Jul 2025 at 20:10

TrojanWhore said:
Did it not effect your premiums? Also, people who live in rented or shared accomodation wouldn't need building insurance and may not have good reasons to have a separate contents policy

contents insurance is seperate from buildings insurance. premium never went up but at the end of year it always does to some silly amount. good reason erm burglary,fire,accidental damage at 6 pound a month for 100k cover u have to be stupid to not have contents insurance these days

TrojanWhore · 18 Jul 2025 at 20:22

hlennie said:
contents insurance is seperate from buildings insurance. premium never went up but at the end of year it always does to some silly amount. good reason erm burglary,fire,accidental damage at 6 pound a month for 100k cover u have to be stupid to not have contents insurance these days

Fair enough, I thought they were combined, at least in some/most cases. I used to have contents insurance but let it lapse when I was struggling for money and haven't thought to get it again since... it was at least £10/month when I had it though, at a basic level of cover! In the time I've lived here it would have cost almost £1k to cover maybe £3-5k worth of stuff I'd be bothered about...

I only ask because when I was a kid my bike got stolen from our garage and my parents grudgingly claimed for it, but pointed out how it was only just worth it compared to the premium.

hlennie · 18 Jul 2025 at 20:27

TrojanWhore said:
Fair enough, I thought they were combined, at least in some/most cases. I used to have contents insurance but let it lapse when I was struggling for money and haven't thought to get it again since... it was at least £10/month when I had it though, at a basic level of cover! In the time I've lived here it would have cost almost £1k to cover maybe £3-5k worth of stuff I'd be bothered about...

I only ask because when I was a kid my bike got stolen from our garage and my parents grudgingly claimed for it, but pointed out how it was only just worth it compared to the premium.

I had to pay 100 excess well worth having the insurance it also covers 2500 personal items away from home so thats my iphones tablet. i watch and switch2 covered when im out and about

TrojanWhore · 18 Jul 2025 at 20:32

hlennie said:
I had to pay 100 excess well worth having the insurance it also covers 2500 personal items away from home so thats my iphones tablet. i watch and switch2 covered when im out and about

For context, that bike was a pretty high end BMX at the time, payout was £900 or so....
Mine didn't have away from home cover, it did include something like £5k worth of undeclared electronics, but tbh just the system(s) in your sig is close to all my kit together

Edit: then again, you're right - if I was gonna spend £1400+ on just a GPU I'd make sure stuff was covered and claim off that!