Testing suggests faulty cable may be to blame for melting RTX 4090 connectors

Earlier this week, a few Reddit customers reported that the facility connectors for his or her costly new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs had partially melted and that Nvidia was wanting into the problem. Since then, at the least 9 extra Reddit customers have posted about the identical downside with the 16-pin energy connector (a thread gathering all data on the issue is right here).

Igor Wallossek of the German-language {hardware} web site Igor’s Lab has additionally carried out extra testing, and mentioned that the facility adapter cable (quite than the GPUs or the 12VHPWR connector) could also be in charge for the issues. The adapter, which is outwardly manufactured by an organization known as Astron and was offered by Nvidia to all of its board companions, makes use of “a complete of 4 thick 14AWG wires distributed over a complete of six contacts,” with a skinny solder base that Wallossek says might be broken simply when the cables are moved or bent.

“If, within the worst case, the 2 outer wires break off, all the present within the center flows by means of the remaining two wires,” Wallossek wrote. “The truth that this then turns into actually scorching doesn’t must be defined individually.”

Distinction Nvidia’s adapter cable to the 12VHPWR cable supplied with a Be Quiet! Darkish Energy Professional 13 energy provide, one of some newer ATX 3.0 PSU fashions with a 12VHPWR cable that connects proper to the PSU quite than counting on an adapter. The cable is thicker than the one in Nvidia’s adapter as a result of each pin has its personal wire, nevertheless it additionally runs cool and delivers dependable energy to the GPU.

Wallossek additionally mentioned that Nvidia informed its companions to ship all affected playing cards again to Nvidia for additional investigation and testing. We requested Nvidia about this downside and the investigation earlier this week and can replace if we obtain new data.