Gigabyte RTX 30 & 40 Series GPUs Are Reportedly Cracking PCBs
Nvidia is allegedly refusing RMA on cracked GPUs.
A repair technician who has reportedly worked on dozens of effected cards shared images and their experiences regarding repairs and attempted RMA’s.
Reportedly, affected customers who sent their cards back had their RMA claims rejected by Gigabyte. The units were returned to customers with the dreaded PCB damage sticker and red arrow stickers pointing to the cracks. Gigabyte reportedly also charged customers for return shipping.
The cracking is taking place in an area on one end of the PCI-e 16x connector, specifically near the PCI-e locking tab that indexes with a corresponding clip to prevent the GPU from pulling out the slot.
This usually, wouldn’t cause any issues, except that in this case the cracks have compromised critical electrical traces which carry signals necessary for the GPU to function. The severity of the cracks vairy from case to case, ranging from only a few affected traces to a plethora of broken connections.
The place where the cracks are showing up suggest the issue may have to do with the GPU’s weight. In the last two generations of GPU’s Nvidia’s GeForce series have gotten bulkier and heavier than ever. For example, the RTX 4090 is usually seen as a 3-slot card, but some offerings have pushed this to 4.5-slots, dramatically increasing their weight. Manufactures are aware of the weight of their cards and the potential problems it can cause as many 40-series cards ship with support brackets to mitigate their immense weight.
Most of the effected cards are from prebuilt systems. Nonetheless, there are also instances of cards cracking on their own.
Graphics card with broken PCB traces can be salvaged if you have the needed equipment and expertise. Despite the possibility of salvaging a damaged card, even experienced technicians admit the repair process is challenging and the chances of success are slim.
Most affected owners are selling their cracked GPUs on places like eBay to try and recover some of the loss. Most listings are practically giving away the cards compared to MSRP.