Melting GeForce RTX 4090 12VHPWR cables: What you’ll want to know

Nvidia’s superb GeForce RTX 4090 wowed reviewers and set a brand new bar for simply how stupidly quick a graphics card could possibly be. Sadly, the launch of the $1,600 GPU has been marred by a number of reviews of melting 12VHPWR connectors used within the playing cards damaging each the connector and the GPUs at instances.

The brand new 12VHPWR connector is a compact energy connector that mixes the potential of a number of older 6- and 8-pin connectors into one tiny plug. It was initially adopted with the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Version and is now used within the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Version in addition to customized variations of the RTX 4090 constructed by the likes of Asus, MSI, et cetera. The 12VHPWR connector was additionally utilized in newer RTX 40-series graphics playing cards just like the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti, although not in AMD’s Radeon RX 7000-series GPUs.

Updates:
Stories of melting connectors had largely subsided however a spate of melted adapters utilizing third-party CableMod has cropped with the corporate saying it has acquired 20 reviews with nearly all of the issue doubtless being improperly inserted adapters.
The GeForce proprietor who sued Nvidia claiming the playing cards are faulty has requested the courtroom to dismiss his swimsuit with prejudice.
Whereas most melted connectors have occurred on the GPU, one Reddit poster is reporting a melted PSU this time.

With this fast-moving, complicated, and in addition very critical state of affairs, PCWorld has determined to spherical up the details you have to know to assist separate truth from fiction. Nvidia officers have declined to remark whereas it investigates, however the newest growth appear to level to dangerous 12VHPWR adapter cables. There’s additionally the chance that not absolutely inserting the cable might trigger elevated resistance and sufficient warmth to soften the connectors. We’ll replace this story as new data is launched.

• Sept. 10 Hassan Mujtaba of WCCFTech reviews of an alert issued from PCI-SIG to members of a “thermal variance, which might lead to questions of safety below sure security circumstances.” The member alert advises distributors to “work intently with their connector distributors and train due diligence in utilizing high-power connections”

• Sept. 14 The total e-mail and extra particulars from the PCI-SIG are reported by Stephen Burke of Avid gamers Nexus and notes that “failures have been noticed in sure cable routing circumstances from PSUs and check boards that generate facet load on the interface.” Burke mentioned the report—apparently created by Nvidia—from PCI-SIG confirmed three totally different producers have been examined with 10 pattern assemblies with failures manifesting from 10 hours to 30 hours with melting. It’s value declaring that the inner report appears to discuss with the connection on the PSU facet—not the GPU facet. Typically, nevertheless, ATX 3.0 energy provides PCWorld have seen point out the cables to be an identical on each ends.

Brad Chacos/IDG

• Sept. 22 VideoCardz’s editor WhyCry reviews that GPU maker Zotac’s steering on the brand new 12VHPWR connector is rated for 30-insertion cycles which raises alarms as to the lifespan and sturdiness of the brand new connector. VideoCardz later amends its report back to say that whereas 30 cycles seems very low, many Molex connectors launched over the past 20 years have had related mating cycles.

• Oct. 24 The primary report of a melted 12HPWR connector is posted on the Nvidia sub-reddit. The GPU seems to be a Gigabyte 4090 Gaming OC utilizing an Nvidia-branded 12VHPWR adapter cable. Each Nvidia and Gigabyte attain out to the proprietor who reviews a alternative card has been acquired. A second report of a melted dongle is acquired as properly on that day with harm to the adapter cable and an Asus RTX 4090 TUF Gaming OC Version occurring. The Reddit put up instantly goes viral on the high-profile graphics card with many assuming the brand new connector to be at fault.

• Oct. 24 A couple of hours after the preliminary melting report on Reddit, famend energy provide reviewer and the precept behind PSU certification firm Cybenetics, Aristeidis Bitziopoulos, makes an attempt to copy the melting 12VHPWR connector by subjecting it to 600 watt masses for greater than 90 minutes. He’s unable to break the cable whereas seeing solely a small thermal variance. It must be famous that the check used a local 12VHPWR cable on an ATX 3.0 energy provide relatively than Nvidia’s adapter. Bitziopoulos concludes the 12VHPWR connector doesn’t appear to be a problem in his testing.

• Oct. 24 Overclocker Buildzoid of Really {Hardware} Overclocking, posts a video criticizing the brand new 12VHPWR connector noting that the brand new connector drastically reduces the variety of pins and wires carrying energy.

• Oct. 25. With failures now reported at three,  Nvidia officers inform the Verge’s Tom Warren that “we’re investigating the reviews” and are in touch with the house owners of the impacted playing cards. 

• Oct. 25 Former HardOCP editor Kyle Bennett AMD’s upcoming RDNA3 GPUs is not going to use the 12VHWPR connector in its reference designs. Neither Bennett, nor his sources at AMD point out when the design choice was made to skip 12VHPWR.

• Oct. 25 Displaying what a distraction the 12VHPWR has develop into, AMD’s Scott Herkelman publicly confirms the brand new Radeon playing cards will skip 12VHPWR and receives responses similar to “That may be a HUGE reduction, pleased with that information.”

• Oct. 26 The official Reddit megathread itemizing displaying documented failures now numbers 5 broken 12VHWPR connectors.

• Oct. 26 Jason Langiven, aka JayzTwoCents, who has lengthy been essential of the connector being “harmful,” makes an attempt to copy the failure on a local 12VHWPR cable and is unable to induce a failure on the cable below heavy masses.

Brad Chacos/IDG

• Oct. 27 Igor Wallossek of IgorsLab.de conducts a tear down and failure check of a 12VHPWR energy adapter and concludes that the difficulty doesn’t look like the 12VHPWR design itself nor the much-touted insertion cycle concern raised beforehand. As a substitute, Wallossek concludes it’s the design of Nvidia’s adapter itself, which he describes as “inferior high quality (and) can result in failures and has already precipitated harm in single instances.” Wallossek mentioned he believes bending and kinking of the adapter could cause weak solder joints and bridges to interrupt and enhance the resistance inflicting the melting.

• Oct. 28 Ronaldo Buassali of TecLab.internet.br posts his personal failure checks, together with swinging an influence provide utilizing simply the connector and subjecting to a stress check of 1,532—properly past its rated sustained wattage of 600 watts.

• Oct. 30 Stephen Burke of Avid gamers Nexus makes an attempt to copy the melting failure by deliberately damaging a 12VHPWR adapter just like what IgorsLab.de had reported and subjected it to a 99 p.c load for 8 hours with no melting noticed. Burke additionally notes that his 5 adapters all look like constructed the identical—and but otherwise than the adapter IgorsLab had. Burke mentioned his 5 12VHWPR adapters use wires labeled for 300 volts versus the 150 volts the adapter Wallossek had. Burke concludes that we simply don’t know what the difficulty is, however it’s a actual drawback on some adapters—however not all of them. He additionally mentions a principle being floated that the smaller connector might not simply seat in addition to the bigger conventional energy connectors. He additionally factors out that opposite to what many shoppers imagine, a local connector that plugs instantly into an influence provide may additionally fail the identical approach if the native cable is constructed the identical because the failed adapters. Burke additionally asks house owners of RTX 4090 playing cards to report which cable adapters they’ve.

• Oct. 30 With information that there look like totally different 12VHPWR adapters being supplied, Stephen Burke of Gamer’s Nexus reviews by way of Twitter that of the 130 emails he has acquired, 7 p.c of homeowners report they’ve the 150V cabling that was utilized in IgorsLab’s adapter cable. Burke notes that whereas the cable marking might say 150V, that solely means it makes use of the identical obvious spec cables—and doesn’t point out they’re might have the low-quality solder joints that IgorsLab discovered. Burke additionally notes that of the 130, “not many are burned.”

• Oct. 30 Andreas Schilling of Hardwareluxx.de who’ve bought RTX 4090 playing cards. He reviews that 12 have a 4-pins-to-12VHPWR adapter marked “300V.” One has a 3-pins-to-12VHPWR marked “150V,” and two folks have 4-pins-to-12VHPWR marked “150V.”

• Nov. 1 Ronaldo Buassali of TecLab.internet.br posts an extended video of testing from the unique dwell stream with further explanations of how he examined the 12VHPWR. Not like many of the testing up to now, which used precise GeForce RTX 4090 playing cards, Buassali bodily removes the 12VHPWR connector from the GPU and wires it up for stress testing. This lets Buassali push the connector meeting properly previous the 600 watts referred to as for, together with a great deal of 900 watts, 1,200 watts and 1,500 watts. Buassali’s conclusion? The 12VHPWR connector itself is “properly sized, a lot in order that it supported far more than its specification.” Nonetheless, Buassali concludes that though the connector can deal with greater than it’s rated for, a poorly inserted connector that creates resistance might certainly be behind the melting of the connector. Buassali additionally doesn’t rule out a batch of dangerous cables, however that suggests a producing concern, not a design drawback.

• Nov. 2 Jon Gerow, director of R&D at Corsair and previously of Jonnyguru.com, posts outcomes from deliberately broken 12VHPWR cable adapters below load and is unable to induce melting as properly. Gerow was capable of supply a number of 12VHPWR adapter cables for harmful testing, and regardless of breaking off solder joints, he was unable to induce melting or a failure. He did be aware that among the adapters weren’t constructed very properly however even the worst of the batch handed stress testing with out failing. Gerow concludes that among the issues might have occurred when the house owners didn’t absolutely seat the 12VHPWR adapter cables and in addition posts photos of put in PCs the place even a small hole of 1 mm might lead to elevated resistance.

• Nov. 3 AMD formally pronounces its RDNA3-based Radeon 7900XT and Radeon 7900XTX and proudly notes that it didn’t use 12VHPWR connections. Nonetheless, the corporate factors out that the overall notion that it modified its designs solely after the melting issues cropped up a number of weeks in the past just isn’t right. AMD made the choice to stick with standard 8-pin energy connectors greater than a 12 months in the past.

• Nov. 4 A brand new put up within the Nvidia subreddit, taken from a Fb put up of a Hong Kong-based RTX 4090 proprietor, is the primary reported broken 12VHPWR cable from a local cable plugged instantly into an influence provide. Earlier to this report, all the reported points had solely occurred in 12VHPWR adapter cables, not native cables. The next day, one other individual reviews a melted connector utilizing a local 12VHPWR cable from an ATX 3.0 energy provide. This seems to sprint hopes {that a} native plug would clear up the issue.

• Nov 7 The variety of confirmed failed connectors now numbers 23 on the Reddit megathread, with points unfold amongst many graphics card makers. Oddly, there are not any Nvidia Founders Version playing cards listed with failures. There are additionally 5 unconfirmed instances listed from different board makers as properly.

• Nov. 7 VideoCardz editor WhyCry reviews that an individual on Reddit has been instructed his or her Gainward GeForce RTX 4090 might be delayed till the center of November because it waits for alternative 12VHPWR adapter cables. The e-mail, despatched from Australian PC firm Techfast to a buyer, mentioned “Whereas investigations are nonetheless persevering with and Nvidia has not launched a public assertion, Gainward has instructed us that cables shipped with their playing cards will (are) being changed. In consequence, they’re holding transport of all playing cards till this has taken place. We additionally perceive this cable alternative is not going to be restricted to Gainward alone.” PCWorld reached out to Techfast who confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail.

• Nov. 8 Regardless of Australian PC builder Techfast confirming an e-mail despatched to clients saying some RTX 4090 playing cards could be delayed whereas Gainward ships alternative cables and implying different GPU makers would do the identical, Gainward’s EU Fb web page says that isn’t the case and has issued a clarification. “There’s incorrect data suggesting Gainward is delaying the RTX 4090 cargo to interchange the cables currently. Right here we want to make clear that—Gainward just isn’t holding any RTX 40 cargo to interchange the cables, and has no plan to take action. The cables Gainward at the moment used on the RTX 40 have been inspected by NVIDIA workforce and located no points. All Gainward cargo is being made as normal. Please don’t hesitate to seize the Gainward graphics playing cards for those who plan to purchase one!”

• Nov. 11 UK {hardware} web site KitGuru that it’s persevering with to research the state of affairs. “”We proceed to research the reviews, nevertheless we don’t have additional particulars to share but. NVIDIA and our companions are dedicated to supporting our clients and guaranteeing an expedited RMA course of for them,” KitGuru says by way of .

• Nov. 13 There are actually 26 confirmed GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs with melted connectors documented within the Nvidia subreddit together with for the primary time, a report of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Version with a melted connector.

• Nov 14 Igor Wallossek of Igorslab.de confirms there are no less than two producers of the Nvidia provided adapter plugs with one of many adapters seemingly utilizing a rougher casting making insertions harder. Wallossek, who mentioned he has spoken with Nvidia’s director of engineering Gabriele Gorla, doesn’t blame finish customers, however does imagine the rougher castings might presumably have lead some clients to to rock the 12VHWPR connector into the socket which can be why so many reviews present melted connectors ranging from one facet of the connector with few to none melting from the middle. The answer, Wallossek mentioned, might point out the PCI SIG must concern steering on preserve out zones to offer shoppers higher entry to the socket to instantly inserting it relatively than rocking the connectors in from one facet. Wallossek additionally notes that of the 2 adapter cables used provided by Nvidia, one design solely grabs pins on two sides whereas the opposite design grabs pins on all 4 sides.

• Nov. 16 In an exhaustive investigation counting on third-party failure evaluation utilizing X-ray examination in addition to electron microscope examination, in addition to reproducing the failures, Avid gamers Nexus’ EIC Stephen Burke concludes particles contained in the connectors from manufacturing or from insertion in addition to improperly seating the cables is basically behind many of the failures seen. Burke additionally cites numbers from a vendor that the chance of failure is from 0.05 to .1 p.c at this level. Though improperly seating the cables whereas placing it below pressure appears to get many of the blame, Burke additionally wonders if the design of the connector shouldn’t have anticipated the problems.

• Nov. 16 Tom’s {Hardware} reviews {that a} GeForce RTX 4090 proprietor has filed a class-action within the US District Courtroom for the Northern District Courtroom of California over the melting connectors. Filed by Lucas Genova on Nov. 11, the swimsuit alleges Nvidia “marketed and bought the RTX 4090 with a faulty and harmful energy cable plug and socket, which has rendered shoppers’ playing cards inoperable and poses a critical electrical and fireplace hazard for each purchaser,” in line with the Tom’s {Hardware} report.

• Nov. 17 Seeking to pour just a little salt into the injuries of its competitor, AMD officers have been touting their fortune of not implementing the brand new 12VHPWR connector in its upcoming Radeon 7000-series of playing cards.