NVIDIA's 16-Pin Connector on GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics Card Burns Up, Melts The Cable & The Plug

The first case of an NVIDIA 16-pin connector, powering the GeForce RTX 4090, burning up and melting the plug has been reported.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Oh no Nvidia imo

[ABizzel1]

It's a one off currently, but that cable has definitely been underdeveloped due to the restrictions on how much bend and flex you need, making the 4090 a bad fit anything except a full tower and preferably a wider full tower.

[masterfox]

kinda expect it, after the ridiculous power consumption and effing small connector for such consumption, more reports of this are on its way imo, I don't think it has nothing to do how the cable is bent(remember how do you think users organize their power cables behind or backside of the case) , also nobody is talking about this but I think the size of this card is nonsense and is putting a lot of stress into the PCIe connector, even thou the card attaches to the backpanel chassis, it should be some stress into the mobo card socket and connectors of the card, unless your PC tower is horizontally placed it shouldn't be a problem.

[Vits]

Too much pówer, too small of an area and without the ability to bend the cable. No wonder this is happening.

[DrDoomer]

fuck me dead...

[CaptainHenry916]

Early adoptors always experience things like this. Nvidia better hurry and fix this problem. Probably need to put a Recall on the cables

[Bobertt]

The problem is this is an industry spec now so the group that issues the cable specs would have to recall it. But if enough cases pop up and get reported to Consumer Product Safety Commission they can force them to remove the cable. I believe there is a possible fix though, there will be 90 degree adapters coming out in the next couple weeks and that should help stop the bending.

[Bobertt]

This is caused because of the bending. This 16 pin connector uses smaller pins than the normal 8 pin connectors we are used to so it's more fragile. If it's bent too much the pins come out more easily and have less surface area to conduct and that causes them to overheat. The stupid thing is this didn't even need to exist, 2 normal 8 pin connectors do the same job and are more durable but they wanted to save like a 1/4 an inch to make this shit instead. They have no issues making GPUs 2-3x bigger but they want to make this smaller instead. Fixing something that wasn't broken and instead making it worse.

[Bobertt]

I can't edit it now but for a correction the 4090 would need 3 8 pins not 2 but still that's only saving an inch. Also AMD has now confirmed they won't use this 16 pin connector on their cards.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

If you look at the RTX 4090's PCB, that inch does matter.

[Bobertt]

They already made it stupid big what's adding another inch.

[jznrpg]

Crazy they charge closer to 2k for a card and go super cheap on the connector .

[Furesis]

I was just thinking about this the other day how the gpu power connector is in such a awkward place, like why is it not from the side or directly from the MB or anything. All these years and no real innovation with some of the way these parts plug in. Now maybe there is a reason and please do tell but there has got to be more simpler ways to connect wires than this lol
I guess it's one of those "if it aint broke dont fix it" things but c'mon

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Because the middle of the card is where the PCB ends; the rest are fans and heatsink to cool down this beast.

Nvidia wanted to replace the tried-and-true 8-pin connector (the side one) with a more compact one to both save space on the PCB itself and provide more power. The 8-pin connector can provide up to 150W. To power a GPU like RTX 4090, at least 3 connectors are required. This new 12VHPWR can provide up to 600W.

Direct power from the motherboard would require a complete redesign of the motherboard layout because, as it is today, the PCIe extension can only provide GPUs with 75W. The extra power has to come from somewhere else. It's indeed 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' case.

[JeffGUNZ]

Spot on. I am just surprised that the FE cards didn't have the connector offset at an angle like the 3000 series. Something at all would have been better to try and avoid the inevitable bend people are going to have to do for cable management.

[DaMist]

So far so good over here, then again my case is wide enough I didn't have to be the cable or have against the glass, still a scary thought.

[Neonridr]

growing pains it seems. I remember not that long ago we had stories of the 3080/3090 having problems because certain manufacturers chose to use different capacitors than others.

[Miacosa]

Early reports seem to point to an id10t error on the user's part for not securing the cabling properly according to spec. Although if the tolerances are so touchy NVidia could be in for some recalls if the problem becomes widespread and property and or individuals get hurt.