NVIDIA investigates reports of cable burn or melt with GeForce RTX 4090 – Nvidia

Reddit user reggie_gakil, He was the first to post Details of the problem he encountered with the Gigabyte RTX 4090 graphics card, which shows revealing images of damage to the new 12VHPWR adapter cable available from Nvidia with the purchase of every GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. The corresponding connector on the same graphics card also sustained severe damage.

In the same Reddit thread, one The second user replied Saying he may not have found a similar range of damage, but the picture he posted shows both the cable and the 12VHPWR connector on the graphics card showing the damage. The graphics card in the second case was the ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 TUF Gaming.

“We’re investigating the reports,” NVIDIA spokesperson Brian Del Rizzo recently told the site. the edge. “We are in contact with the first owner and will contact the second owner for additional information.”

NVIDIA first adopted the 16-pin power connector on its latest generation GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards and has now moved to standardizing 12VHPWR on all GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards. However, there are concerns that the 12VHPWR power connector, designed for ATX 3.0 power supplies, may cause arcing problems under certain conditions.

The terminals/sockets of the new 12VHPWR connector are smaller than the previous generation with the website Caplimod To warn that “Bending the cables near the connector may cause some pins to loosen contact or misalign themselves inside the connector on the graphics card.”

The website recommends not bending the cable vertically or horizontally near the point of contact, but that the bend point is at least 35mm from the male connector on the cable. This is unfortunately very difficult, as the connector on the graphics card is placed on the back of the graphics card causing the NVIDIA-provided cable to be “found” on the side of the computer in most cases. It’s certainly a point that, at least for us, NVIDIA hasn’t invested enough thought into it.

on youtube channel, JayzTwoCentsThe famous YouTuber warned of the problems that slot placement could cause in new NVIDIA graphics cards, even calling the slot “dangerous”, but the company disagrees. Brandon Bell, Senior Technical Marketing Director at NVIDIA, responded to the popular YouTuber via email: “I think you’re concerned about issues that don’t exist.”

In early September, the PCI-SIG consortium, responsible for developing I/O standards, warned Some applications of the 12VHPWR socket “have demonstrated thermal fluctuations that can lead to safety issues under certain conditions”.

Images provided by the PCI-SIG consortium show several ways in which a conductor can ignite or melt as a result of extreme bending scenarios. The damage seen in the various images released by the consortium looks very similar to the one posted by a Reddit member this week.

One solution is to avoid using the cable/adapter provided by NVIDIA, although it will undoubtedly cost you very little to purchase a new ATX 3.0 power supply. Otherwise you have to be extra careful when bending the cable/adapter provided by NVIDIA.

Power supply manufacturers have already begun to market 12VHPWR cables that terminate in two 8-pin PCI-E connectors on the power supply. Corsair, for example, sells its own version for $19.99. Logically, cables like the above can help users avoid problems like the two Redditors encountered. However, we are also waiting for the NVIDIA investigation to conclude.