Earlier this week, a few Reddit customers reported that the facility connectors for his or her costly new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs had partially melted and that Nvidia was wanting into the difficulty. Since then, not less than 9 extra Reddit customers have posted about the identical downside with the 16-pin energy connector (a thread amassing all info on the issue is right here).

Igor Wallossek of the German-language {hardware} website Igor’s Lab has additionally carried out extra testing, and mentioned that the facility adapter cable (slightly than the GPUs or the 12VHPWR connector) could also be responsible for the issues. The adapter, which is outwardly manufactured by an organization referred to as Astron and was offered by Nvidia to all of its board companions, makes use of “a complete of 4 thick 14AWG wires distributed over a complete of six contacts,” with a skinny solder base that Wallossek says will be broken simply when the cables are moved or bent.

“If, within the worst case, the 2 outer wires break off, the whole present within the center flows by means of the remaining two wires,” Wallossek wrote. “The undeniable fact that this then turns into actually sizzling doesn’t should be defined individually.”

Contrast Nvidia’s adapter cable to the 12VHPWR cable supplied with a Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 energy provide, one of some newer ATX 3.0 PSU fashions with a 12VHPWR cable that connects proper to the PSU slightly than counting on an adapter. The cable is thicker than the one in Nvidia’s adapter as a result of each pin has its personal wire, nevertheless it additionally runs cool and delivers dependable energy to the GPU.

Wallossek additionally mentioned that Nvidia advised its companions to ship all affected playing cards again to Nvidia for additional investigation and testing. We requested Nvidia about this downside and the investigation earlier this week and can replace if we obtain new info.