A latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 purchaser has been lamenting his buy on Reddit. It isn’t one other case of a supply switcheroo although, as this time the PC DIYer is feeling ‘burnt’ as a result of graphics card energy connector melting. A number of energy travels although a confined house with an RTX 4090 utilizing the 16-pin 12VHPWR energy connector, and to this point that is the primary report of a melted “quadropus” adapter — the usual 4x 8-pin to 1x 16-pin Nvidia adapter cable that comes with all 4090 playing cards.
Nonetheless, we’ve got to marvel if the person was simply unfortunate, made a slight error in set up, or if that is the primary of many such melting energy connector tales we’ll see within the coming months. The RTX 4090 is likely to be the quickest of the finest graphics playing cards proper now, however it’s additionally some of the energy hungry GPUs to grace PCs.
Testing Redditor reggie_gakil’s setup through the above-linked thread, it is a highly effective trying RGB infused PC system that packs in a potent mixture of air and liquid cooling options. A reference RTX 4090 sucks 450W down although the compact energy connector, however manufacturing facility overclocked fashions can push that as much as round 500W, and handbook overclocking may enhance that to 600W or extra.
The Redditor asserts he was merely enjoying Pink Useless Redemption 2, with a comparatively modest GPU load of 400W, when the cable melted, which seems to rule out excessive overclocking. Assuming that is true, we nonetheless have a number of potential factors of failure.
All energy connectors should be seated correctly and totally engaged to make sure trouble-free conductivity. It is a significantly essential concern with larger energy parts the place a poor connection would possibly trigger overheating and even electrical arcing, with disastrous penalties. Reggie_gakil’s photos present indicators that there was a connection challenge current, inflicting the connector and socket to soften.
The massive query is whether or not the difficulty was precipitated by person error, a fault within the connector, or one thing else. “Bend was not that aggressive,” the Redditor states in a remark following the publication of the connector photos and questions from different social media customers. “Positive there was bend, nonetheless this could not occur on a 2K Euro GPU PSU Corsair RMX 1000.”
Wanting nearer on the photos of the melted connectors, it would merely be the case that the bend within the cable was too close to the connector, or that the sockets on the adapter had been defective / unfastened. There’s clear harm that appears to originate on the top-right and top-left pins, whereas the middle part does not present as a lot melting. And naturally it is unattainable to rule out a flaky energy provide — what labored advantageous with a lesser GPU could have crossed some vital threshold with the RTX 4090.
Regardless of the trigger, we hope the producer(s) contacted will assist clear up reggie_gakil’s melted connector points. Then he can get again to some high-resolution, quick body price, pistol packing enjoyable within the wild west.
Past that, CableMod has a information on the brand new 16-pin connector and cables. It recommends avoiding bend on the cables and notes, “…it seems that bending the wires too near the connector may lead to among the terminals coming unfastened or misaligning inside the connector itself. This may increasingly result in an uneven load throughout the opposite wires, rising the chance of overheating harm. The chance of that is considerably larger if the bend is completed horizontally in relation to the connector orientation (left to proper).” That nearly feels… prescient given this Redditor’s expertise — take a look at the second picture above and see the horizonal bend on the cables.
For anybody else who manages to amass an RTX 4090, we are able to solely advocate verifying that each one the 8-pin and 16-pin connectors are firmly seated and keep away from bending the wires close to the connector as a lot as potential. Leaving the case aspect off at first whilst you fireplace up some video games and test the cable and connector temperatures is likely to be smart.