5 sourced reports, with what to check before you buy. Each one links to the page it was reported on.
Costly or dangerous
RTX 5080 12VHPWR connector melted with MSI cable
A second independent documented case: an RTX 5080 with an MSI 12VHPWR cable whose connector plastic melted and deformed, causing spontaneous reboots - confirming the 4090-era melting defect has migrated to the 50-series.
What to check. Inspect the connector and cable regularly, and treat any spontaneous reboots or heat near the plug as a warning sign; the article notes the small contact area makes the connector vulnerable to distortion or stress regardless of revision.
RTX 5080 Gigabyte Gaming OC 16-pin power connector meltdown
A documented case of a complete 16-pin connector meltdown on an RTX 5080, even in deep undervolting (230-260W average), using the included 8-pin adapter on a non-ATX 3.0 PSU.
What to check. Prefer a native 12V-2x6 cable from an ATX 3.0 PSU over the included adapter, avoid sharp bends near the plug, and monitor the 16-pin voltage line - the article advises inspecting the connector if it drops below 11.4V while the PCIe slot holds 12V.
GeForce driver 621.01 causes video freezes and black screens on RTX 5080
A driver regression in 621.01 caused video playback freezes, brief black screens, and driver resets, reported on RTX 5080; NVIDIA acknowledged it and asked for diagnostic data. Rolling back to 617.42 resolved it.
What to check. If you see video freezes or black screens during playback on an RTX 5080, roll back to driver 617.42 - the article identifies it as the comparison driver until NVIDIA fixes 621.01.
NVIDIA investigating RTX 5080 black screen and stability issues
Owners reported black screens and stability failures on RTX 5080/5090 at launch; NVIDIA confirmed it was investigating. The most common workaround was downshifting PCIe 5.0 to 4.0, which did not resolve it for all owners, and some suspected the GPU drivers.
What to check. If you hit black screens, try PCIe 4.0 and a single DisplayPort monitor as troubleshooting steps, and keep drivers current since NVIDIA was actively investigating a driver-side cause.
Driver 595.71 imposed a GPU core voltage limit that dropped boost clocks below 3 GHz and cut power draw on RTX 40/50 cards, replicated on an RTX 5080; NVIDIA had not yet responded.
What to check. If you overclock an RTX 5080, be aware a driver update can silently cap voltage and boost clocks; check whether a driver change coincides with a sudden performance drop before assuming hardware failure.
These reports come from the pages linked under each item: owner forums, repair guides and workshops. They are not a diagnosis of any one unit, and a careful check of the one you are buying still applies.
Text from the Kriko Graphics cards catalog, version 0.1.2, under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 license.
