Nvidia Quietly Releases RTX 4090’s With RTX 4070’s Safer Power Connector

Recently, a new RTX 4090 owner posted photos of the card’s power connector, having noticed it differed from the standard connector known for melting under the incredibly high power draw of the card.

As seen in the above image, it has been confirmed that the card has been outfitted with the recent RTX 4070’s newer and safer version of the same flawed 16-pin power connector the RTX 4090 launched. The difference lies in the four smaller sense pins that feed data to and from the card to the power supply. The pins have been recessed deeper in the connector, making them shorter.

The adjustment was reportedly taken from the latest 12V-2×6 power connector specifications. The adjustment ensures the 16-pin power cable won’t send continuous power to the GPU if it isn’t inserted fully. Nvidia cited not having the connector inserted fully as the cause of the documented RTX 4090 power connector failures. The assumption is that Nvidia thinks this will prevent RTX 4090 connector failures from occurring – something that has been happening since its launch.

The power connector appears to be a prototype 12V-2×6 connector that has been built according to PCI-SIG’s (the body responsible for standardising PCI devices) recommended specifications. The connector is still in active development, so this isn’t the final version.
What frustrates the matter is that we don’t know which production models of the RTX 4090 are receiving this new connector. We are also not sure when the new connector will start to be standardised across the various models of the RTX 40 series.

If the new connector proves successful, we can expect to see it on various models of the RTX 40 series both on the founders edition and AIB (Add-In Board) partner models. How long it takes until that happens remains to be seen. However long it does take, it’s good to see Nvidia, however quietly, pushing to improve the flawed design.