Update On The Nvidia RTX 4090 Power Line Melting: A Possible Solution From A PSU Expert

The Nvidia RTX 4090’s cable-melting woes are nonetheless ongoing, with mounting studies of the 16-pin 12VHPWR energy adapter overheating and changing into broken – in some instances damaging the $1,599 GPU.

A mega thread on Reddit is collating documented instances of RTX 4090 adapters which have met with a horrible destiny, with the depend now rising to 23 confirmed incidents (and 6 unconfirmed). With the RTX 4080 arriving very quickly and bringing the identical 16-pin connector with it, some salvation might have appeared within the form of Corsair’s energy provide knowledgeable JonnyGuru.

Jonny is well-known within the PSU area as some of the educated specialists in the area. He’s the newest in a protracted line of execs and influencers to attempt to replicate the RTX 4090’s points and has studied the reported instances to give you a potential answer.

There have been many theories surrounding what causes the 12VHPWR adapter to fail, and Jonny’s perception isn’t a brand new concept: he’s positing that the adapter’s poor design makes it very troublesome to completely insert into the GPU’s energy socket.

In several recorded instances, Jonny famous that the adapter was improperly inserted; sufficient to energy the cardboard, but probably not forming a secure connection. The huge dimension of the RTX 4090 forcing some customers to bend their cables might have exacerbated the difficulty.

Whereas there’s no assurance that JonnyGuru is appropriate, his testing course of was rigorous, cross-referencing different customers’ images and utilizing a thermistor to observe the interior temperature of the adapter.

Evaluation: Nvidia is at fault right here, however so is the PCI-SIG

JonnyGuru’s 12VHPWR connector broke by overheating. (Picture credit: JonnyGuru)

As a fast recap for the unaware, the Nvidia RTX 4090 has been having issues with the 12VHPWR adapter, which is a 16-pin PCIe energy connector that must be used with the brand-new GPU to perform correctly with older ATX 2.4 energy provides.

The PCIe Particular Curiosity Group (PCI-SIG), a consortium of tech producers of which Nvidia is a component, issued a memo earlier this yr noting that the 12VHPWR adapter may have issues of safety involving ‘thermal variance’, however, Nvidia put the cardboard into manufacturing anyway.

Now, folks’ crazy-expensive new graphics playing cards are being burned by the overheating adapters, and the PCI-SIG has launched affirmation {that a} revision to the 12VHPWR design could also be coming in December, as proven within the tweet under.

ECR = engineering change requesthttps://t.co/GxmpjzA4pEVery attention-grabbing, what shall be modified presently🧐🧐🧐 pic.twitter.com/iFOioScvklNovember 8, 2022

See Extra

What the PCI-SIG’s governing physique hasn’t executed is admitting any sort of accountability right here – and it seems like Nvidia is not prepared for both. In our view, the blame sits pretty evenly between the 2 events; Nvidia manufactured the playing cards, however, the PCI-SIG did not correctly act to stop the problems we’re beginning to see.

As an apart, should you’re attempting to get your fingers on an RTX 4090, you possibly can probably bypass this complete cable-melting affair by pairing the GPU with a more modern ATX 3.0 energy provide reasonably than one of many ATX 2.4 fashions that can be nonetheless extra widespread amongst PC-builders.

JonnyGuru has one final bit of recommendation (past ‘ensure the connector is inserted’) – he believes {that a} small quantity of dielectric grease, which might be bought cheaply on Amazon or from tech {hardware} retailers, utilized to the connector pins can supposedly enhance connectivity.

Nvidia has but to make an official assertion relating to the thermal points, although we do know that Group Inexperienced is wanting into the issue and has contacted several affected people to verify that an investigation is ongoing.