NVIDIA’s high-end graphics card RTX 4090 previously exposed a fatal flaw: the 16-pin power connector (12VHPWR) is prone to melting, leading to graphics card damage. The situation seemed to have abated in recent months, but a user named Byogore recently took to the PCMR forums to report that his RTX 4090 had been damaged by a melted power connector again. However, the user said that he had been using his RTX 4090 for a year before the problem occurred.
The RTX 4090 meltdowns occurred frequently in early 2023 when many users reported that their RTX 4090s failed after less than six months of use, which was directly related to the melting of the graphics card, the power cord, the power adapter, or the 16-pin power connector between the two, which Byogore’s cards lasted far longer than that.
The concern is that Byogore’s case may be repeated on all NVIDIA RTX 4090s using the older 12VHPWR power connector. That’s not to say that all NVIDIA RTX 4090s will experience this issue, but the possibility exists that more unpredictable failures will occur in the future.
Starting in late 2022, there have been many reports of NVIDIA RTX 4090 meltdowns and damage online due to the fact that the card utilizes a new 12VHPWR power interface that can deliver up to 600W of power.
NVIDIA responded to these issues in November 2022, when the problems were just starting to appear, by claiming that the problems were caused by user error, stating that users were not fully inserting the 16-pin power connector into the corresponding power connector on the RTX 4090. However, this was not the case.
Six months after NVIDIA issued its response, PCI-SIG introduced a new 16-pin interface called the 12V-2×6 power interface, which claimed to solve the problems with the 12VHPWR power interface. This new interface had a few modifications, including a power boost from 600W to 660W, and a slight redesign that seemed to solve the interface melting problem. So far the new interface really hasn’t had any melting issues, but of course, only time will tell if it actually solves the problem.
NVIDIA has been quietly rolling out the new interface to the RTX 4090 and other cards like the RTX 4070, but there are still plenty of RTX 4090 cards on the market that use the older, original 12VHPWR power interface. The good news is that most modern graphics card warranties have been extended to three to four years, so if something goes wrong in the next few years, the RTX 4090 should still be covered.
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