RTX 4090s Continue To Melt Cables
One month after release and the Nvidia RTX 4090 continues to melt power connectors.
When Nvidia’s new flagship graphics card, the RTX 4090, was released and wowed fans by showing users just how powerful a graphics card can get. With high end performance and a price that’s just as high, the card seemed promising albeit pricey. Then, they started to burn out PSU connectors.
The RTX 4090 comes with its own new connector, the 12VHPWR connector that combines the capability of old 6 pin and 8 pin connectors into one smaller plug. The 4090 is an incredibly power hungry card, and the 12VHPWR connectors is designed to deliver that power. The issue lies in the temperatures that the adapter reaches, with many of them exceeding temperatures of 100 degrees celcius, resulting in connectors melting and in some scenarios, fires.
The exact cause is still unknown, but it is definitely a problem with the adapter itself. Users with a 4090 are recommended to use a PSU that has a 12VHPWR cable so that they can bypass Nvidia’s adapter completely.
The silver lining in this situation is that if you have used one of Nvidia’s 12VHPWR and it has melted resulting in damage to your GPU, you are entitled to a full replacement from Nvidia. So if you have been unfortunate enough to experience this, contact Nvidia and your GPU’s AIB partner (the manufacturer, such as ASUS, Gigabyte etc) and they will send you a replacement.