ZOTAC RTX 5090 reportedly caught fire five minutes into Black Flag Resynced

A ZOTAC RTX 5090 owner reported their card started crackling and emitting smoke roughly five minutes into Black Flag Resynced, according to TweakTown. The card died on the spot. The 12VHPWR connector — the usual suspect in RTX 5090 failures — wasn't melted or damaged, pointing to a different failure mode.

Black Flag Resynced is a fan remake of Assassin's Creed IV in Unreal Engine 5. It's demanding, but not uniquely so — plenty of UE5 titles stress GPUs harder without blowing components. The owner didn't report overclocking or unusual temps before the failure. ZOTAC hasn't issued a statement.

This is the second high-profile RTX 5090 failure in a week. If you're running a 5090, watch your temps and listen for odd sounds during heavy loads. A card shouldn't fail this fast under normal use, even in a worst-case game.

If you're weighing an RTX 5090 purchase or troubleshooting stability on a new card, check our GPU optimization guides for baseline settings and monitoring tips.