Aorus 5090 issues

[samportersnake]

Hi, I'm new here.

In December, I bought a new Aorus 5090 GPU from a reputable store. A short time ago (about a month), while cleaning my PC, I noticed that the card, viewed horizontally, has a slight bend in the PCIe slot. I've looked up information about the model, and it seems I'm not the only one. I'd like to know if this could affect the GPU's functionality at some point, and if anyone here has the same model so I can compare.

 

I had a particular problem with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 just yesterday. I was playing, and suddenly the audio started stuttering, and the FPS dropped. The menu was slow. I exit the game, and the Wi-Fi icon was gone, and I couldn't reconnect till i restart the pc. The temperatures of the GPU, CPU, and all the other components were normal. No WHEA errors appeared in the Event Viewer; however, given the bending, I think it might be related (?) This happened to me twice in a row, both with GPU undervolting, and at stock settings. I reinstalled the Wi-Fi driver and it didn't happen again today, but I need to run more tests. A while after the event, I ran long tests in OCCT (the one with VRAM at 85% GPU usage), and also Heaven Benchmark on ultra settings, for 40 minutes. Both passed without problems. It's also worth mention  the high "NAK PCIe Sent" (up to 17k) count, just while playing Kingdom Hearts: Delivery. In Top Spin 2K25 and the benchmarks, the count doesn't increase. What do you think? Could the GPU flexion be causing the problem?

[Hinjima]

That is certainly a bit of flex but I have seen way worse on GPU's and motherboards that are working perfectly fine.

Even my RTX 4080 has a bit of PCB bend after using the built in GPU holder on my Fractal Torrent.

I'd say it was looking similar to this before I lowered the GPU holder a tad.

 

I am not saying that this is not whats causing the issues, it just doesn't look 'bad enough' to be causing it.