RTX 4090 owner says his 16-pin power connector melted at the GPU and PSU ends simultaneously

midian182

midian182

Posts: 9,782   +121
Staff member
WTF?! Confirming that the melting 16-pin power connector problem hasn't gone away, another RTX 4090 user says that not only has his connector melted on the GPU side, it simultaneously turned to molten plastic on the PSU end. And this was while the card's power was limited to 75%.

The melting 16-pin power connector (12VHPWR) issue has been haunting RTX 4090 owners since Nvidia's flagship launched back in October 2022. It's a big problem that hasn't gone away; in April, a repair shop revealed that it was receiving 200 melted RTX 4090s per month, an increase over the 100 per month it was receiving in the fall.

A couple of elements make the latest case stand out. As reported by Tom's Hardware, the RTX 4090 owner in question wrote on the Korean Quasar Zone forums that the connector melted at the end connecting to his card, which appears to be an MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24G. Nothing unusual there, but what was strange is that the connector at the end connecting to the power supply, an FSP Hydro, melted at the same time.

We have seen plenty of cases where the connector melts at the graphics card end, but melting where it plugs into the power supply is rarer; the first known case of it happening with an ATX 3.0 PSU was reported back in January last year. This is certainly the first reported case of connectors melting at both ends simultaneously.

What's even more surprising is that the user had set the RTX 4090 to run at just 75% of its power limit. Many owners reduce the performance in the hope of avoiding situations like these, but it appears that this doesn't always work.

Nvidia initially blamed the melting on users not fully plugging in the connectors properly, though pretty much everyone else has pointed to design flaws. The new, supposedly safer 12V-2x6 connectors arrived last summer.

Back in February, the voluntary recall of CableMod's 12VHPWR angled adapters, which were coming loose, overheating, and melting into the GPU, became a mandatory one. Ironically, the adapters were supposed to mitigate the risk of the connectors melting as they stop the cables from pressing against the side of a case when plugged into bulky cards.

Permalink to story:

RTX 4090 owner says his 16-pin power connector melted at the GPU and PSU ends simultaneously

 
I refuse to accept that Nvidia didn't know about this issue before using this connector. They have hordes of the most brilliant electrical engineers working for them and these melting connectors can be broken down into basically loosing an argument with Ohms Law. Did noone say, "hey, uhh, maybe we shouldn't push ~3x more power through a smaller cable?" (Napkin math 3x. 150w over 8pins or 600 watts or 12pins)Realisticly, if you look at the size of the pins, the 12pin connector probably has as much surface area as the 8pin to transfer the load. So it might be more accurate to say to that it's 4x the power.

The really dumb thing is that it has to stay at 12v so the only way to make it 600watts capable is to impress the amps which is where you get into trouble with heat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0dium, godrilla, trparky and 2 others
A class action should be made and ask Nvidia to recall all the 4090s.

This is just one of three major issue facing those cards. The other 2 ones are cracking PCBs and solder joint failures.
 
yRaz said:
I refuse to accept that Nvidia didn't know about this issue before using this connector. They have hordes of the most brilliant electrical engineers working for them and these melting connectors can be broken down into basically loosing an argument with Ohms Law. Did noone say, "hey, uhh, maybe we shouldn't push ~3x more power through a smaller cable?" (Napkin math 3x. 150w over 8pins or 600 watts or 12pins)Realisticly, if you look at the size of the pins, the 12pin connector probably has as much surface area as the 8pin to transfer the load. So it might be more accurate to say to that it's 4x the power.

The really dumb thing is that it has to stay at 12v so the only way to make it 600watts capable is to impress the amps which is where you get into trouble with heat.
Click to expand...
There is a major difference between electrical engineering related to power distribution and electrical engineering related to electronics and chip making.
 
redgarl said:
There is a major difference between electrical engineering related to power distribution and electrical engineering related to electronics and chip making.
Click to expand...
Aside from the fact that they have to design the components on the PCB and use Ohms Law to figure out what capacitors and resistors need to go on the board, how big the traces need to be to supply power to the chip and *gasp* the connector that delivers power to the whole thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Endymio
yRaz said:
I refuse to accept that Nvidia didn't know about this issue before using this connector. They have hordes of the most brilliant electrical engineers working for them and these melting connectors can be broken down into basically loosing an argument with Ohms Law. Did noone say, "hey, uhh, maybe we shouldn't push ~3x more power through a smaller cable?" (Napkin math 3x. 150w over 8pins or 600 watts or 12pins)Realisticly, if you look at the size of the pins, the 12pin connector probably has as much surface area as the 8pin to transfer the load. So it might be more accurate to say to that it's 4x the power.

The really dumb thing is that it has to stay at 12v so the only way to make it 600watts capable is to impress the amps which is where you get into trouble with heat.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that heat generation is cubic, so you push twice the amps and you get four times the heat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0dium and yRaz
What a bullslitt honestly! One guy reported abnormal behaviour from his setup and we need an article about it plus a lot of 3060ti owners commenting on this thread for no reason. Seriously just leave it and get a grip! I have 2 systems running for over a year with 4090’s not a problem at all. Sick and tired of this now just go buy AMD and never comment again
 
  • Like
Reactions: Endymio
Stan1ey said:
What a bullslitt honestly! One guy reported abnormal behaviour from his setup and we need an article about it plus a lot of 3060ti owners commenting on this thread for no reason. Seriously just leave it and get a grip! I have 2 systems running for over a year with 4090’s not a problem at all. Sick and tired of this now just go buy AMD and never comment again
Click to expand...
What a bullslitt honestly! One guy reported normal behaviour from his 2 setups and we need a comment about it like His case is some respectable statistical sample. Seriously just leave it and get a grip! I had several systems with classic external PCIE GPU power supply running for nearly two decades and not had a problem at all. Sick and tired of these excuses, cause new connectors are melting down repeatedly in the last two years, just keep Your nVidia and never comment again.

Just joking, but You see - It works both ways. Good to know most people's rigs are working as expected, but something bad is happening and corpos answers for the problem seems not to work. So journalists do Their job and report. Especially that's safety issue.
Are You by any chance working for Boeing? Cause I wanted to know is It safe to fly for My vacations this summer?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0dium and Greggs
noel24 said:
What a bullslitt honestly! One guy reported normal behaviour from his 2 setups and we need a comment about it like His case is some respectable statistical sample. Seriously just leave it and get a grip! I had several systems with classic external PCIE GPU power supply running for nearly two decades and not had a problem at all. Sick and tired of these excuses, cause new connectors are melting down repeatedly in the last two years, just keep Your nVidia and never comment again.

Just joking, but You see - It works both ways. Good to know most people's rigs are working as expected, but something bad is happening and corpos answers for the problem seems not to work. So journalists do Their job and report. Especially that's safety issue.
Are You by any chance working for Boeing? Cause I wanted to know is It safe to fly for My vacations this summer?
Click to expand...
I don’t work at all.
noel24 said:
What a bullslitt honestly! One guy reported normal behaviour from his 2 setups and we need a comment about it like His case is some respectable statistical sample. Seriously just leave it and get a grip! I had several systems with classic external PCIE GPU power supply running for nearly two decades and not had a problem at all. Sick and tired of these excuses, cause new connectors are melting down repeatedly in the last two years, just keep Your nVidia and never comment again.

Just joking, but You see - It works both ways. Good to know most people's rigs are working as expected, but something bad is happening and corpos answers for the problem seems not to work. So journalists do Their job and report. Especially that's safety issue.
Are You by any chance working for Boeing? Cause I wanted to know is It safe to fly for My vacations this summer?
Click to expand...
I don’t work at all you see and it’s because I own Boeing, they all running on rtx 4090’s you see and unfortunately nothing melted yet. Not sure would you be safe or not because you may fly with the one fitted with 3060ti’s and they like to melt a little bit just like your pc. Next time you plug your 300w psu to your 3060ti don’t bend it too hard so you will be very very safe.
 
bviktor said:
Not to mention that heat generation is cubic, so you push twice the amps and you get four times the heat.
Click to expand...

Eh? You likely meant to say heat generation is quadratic: twice the amperage equates to four times the power (and thus heat). But in this context even that is wrong, as a faulty (high-resistance) power connector isn't a constant-current situation.

yRaz said:
Let's not forget the heat increases resistance which then increases heat
Click to expand...
If you're speaking of the conductor itself, heat increases resistance, which lowers amperage, which reduces heat. Which factor predominates depends on the actual values involved.

redgarl said:
A class action should be made and ask Nvidia to recall all the 4090s.
Click to expand...
When a non NVidia-made power cable melts in a connection to a non NVidia-made PSU, it seems obvious something else is going on besides "faulty card design".

This rather clearly seems to be simply a case of (non-NVidia) manufacturers cutting their design factors too fine. They've likely been doing it for years, perhaps decades, but it's only in high-power situations like this that the flaws become evident.
 
Still no issues with the adapter here after a year of ownership. Not sure how to convey the bend in words, I don't have a radii measuring tool.

I have not overclocked or increased power limit of the GPU. It's maximally around 466W in stress testing.

Would still prefer having the old dedicated 8 pins though, especially for bulkiness reasons. This connector should not have existed, and NVIDIA and PCI-SIG are dunces for allowing it onto the market.
 
You knew the power connector is flawed and bought the card with it anyway, who's fault is it? Vote with your wallet, don't buy shitty products. If you still do, take risk and responsibility.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HardReset
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Daniel Sims
Repair shop reports receiving 200 melted RTX 4090s per month, up from last year
2
Replies
40
Views
560
WhoCaresAnymore
WhoCaresAnymore
midian182
April Steam survey sees another AMD card enter chart, Windows 11 gain more users
Replies
4
Views
94
Kam7r
K
Shawn Knight
Asus RTX 4090 BTF embraces a cable-free future, eliminates 16-pin power connector
Replies
13
Views
658
amghwk
amghwk

Latest posts

Back