Nvidia RTX 4090 melting power cable update: PSU expert offers potential fix
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The cable-melting woes of the Nvidia RTX 4090 are still ongoing, with increasing reports of overheating and damage to the 16-pin 12VHPWR power adapter — in some cases damage to the $1,599 GPU.
A mega thread on reddit (opens in new tab) collects documented cases of RTX 4090 adapters met a terrible fate, with the number now rising to 23 confirmed incidents (and six unconfirmed). With the RTX 4080 arriving very soon and bringing the same 16-pin connector, some rescue may have appeared in the form of Corsair’s power supply expert JonnyGuru (opens in new tab).
Jonny is known in the PSU world as one of the most knowledgeable experts in the field. He is the latest in a long line of professionals and influencers trying to replicate the problems of the RTX 4090, and has studied the reported cases to come up with a possible solution.
There have been many theories as to what caused the 12VHPWR adapter’s failure, and Jonny’s belief is not a new idea: he states that the poor design of the adapter makes it very difficult to plug fully into the GPU’s socket.
In several recorded instances, Jonny noted that the adapter was not seated properly; enough to power the card, but may not form a secure connection. The sheer size of the RTX 4090, forcing some users to bend their cables, may have exacerbated the problem.
While there’s no guarantee that JonnyGuru is right, his testing process was rigorous, cross-referencing photos from other users and using a thermistor to monitor the adapter’s internal temperature.
Analysis: Nvidia is to blame here, but so is the PCI-SIG
As a quick summary for those unaware, the Nvidia RTX 4090 has been have problems with the 12VHPWR adapter, a 16-pin PCIe power connector that must be used with the new GPU in order to function properly with older ATX 2.0 power supplies.
The PCIe Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), a consortium of tech manufacturers that Nvidia is a part of, issued a memo earlier this year noting that the 12VHPWR adapter may have safety issues with “thermal variance,” but Nvidia has the card in production anyway.
Now people are insanely expensive new graphics cards are being burned by the overheating adapters, and the PCI-SIG has released confirmation that a revision of the 12VHPWR design could be coming in December, as seen in the tweet below.
ECR = technical change requesthttps://t.co/GxmpjzA4pVery interesting, what will be changed at this point🧐🧐🧐 pic.twitter.com/iFOioScvklNov 8, 2022
What the PCI-SIG governing body hasn’t done is acknowledge some form of responsibility here — and it seems Nvidia doesn’t want to either. In our view, the blame lies fairly evenly between the two parties; Nvidia manufactured the cards, but the PCI-SIG didn’t act right to avoid the problems we’re starting to see.
As an aside, if you try get an RTX 4090you may be able to get around this whole cable-melting affair by pairing the GPU with a newer ATX 3.0 power supply rather than one of the ATX 2.0 models that are still more common among PC builders.
JonnyGuru has one last piece of advice (besides ‘make sure the connector is fully inserted’) – he believes that a small amount of dielectric grease, which can be bought cheaply from Amazon or from tech hardware stores, can be applied to the connector pins improve connectivity.
Nvidia has yet to make an official statement regarding the thermal issues, although we know that Team Green is investigating the issue and has contacted several affected individuals to confirm an investigation is underway.