Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Nvidia is taking unprecedented steps to fix the RTX 4090 melting problem

By

The saga of melting Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs continues, and today’s development is significant. According to inside information, Nvidia is taking the matter very seriously. As a result, it’s taking unprecedented actions to ensure that the RTX 4090s stop burning up.

Although the affected cards seem to primarily be custom versions prepared by Nvidia’s partners, the company has requested that all the cards are sent directly to the headquarters. The investigation has started.

A melted power connector on the Nvidia RTX 4090.
reggie_gakil

Today’s round of juicy Nvidia information comes from Igor’s Lab. According to Igor, Nvidia got in touch with all of its add-in board (AIB) partners earlier today. The company requested that all damaged RTX 4090 cards should be sent directly to the headquarters for in-depth investigation. It’s unclear whether this refers to the manufacturers’ HQ or to Nvidia itself, but it’s clear that the company is taking a strong stance on the matter.

Recommended Videos

Igor’s Lab notes that this is a huge step for Nvidia, seemingly proving that the manufacturer is serious and wants to get this looked into properly. The first report about a melting power adapter on the RTX 4090 emerged a few days ago on Reddit, and since then, similar reports have been popping up. While the owners of an RTX 4090 are running into the issue, tech enthusiasts are purposefully putting the GPU through some heavy testing to determine what’s happening.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

So far, all signs point to the fact that an improper connection can increase the temperatures to a point where the cable and the power connector sets on fire and melts. This appears to be caused by bending the 16-pin cable during the installation, which, in all fairness, is hard to avoid since the GPU is so big. Many PC cases simply don’t have room to accommodate the card and the cable without any bending.

Related

Loose connection testing by GALAX with a 12VHPWR connector.

Loose connection = 100C+
Good connecttion = 60-70C

That's while the connector is pulling a sustained 1530W load. There's more here and it is possible that bending is not the main issue here, force contact is. pic.twitter.com/HPIRLjjVlA

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) October 26, 2022

Igor’s Lab claims that the root of the problem is the Nvidia-supplied 16-pin adapter. Igor notes that the 12VHPWR connection is not exactly the issue by itself, and repeated plugging and unplugging don’t contribute to the rising temperatures.

“The current trigger is NVIDIA’s own adapter to 4x 8-pin in the accessories, whose inferior quality can lead to failures and has already caused damage in single cases,” said Igor in his in-depth report. He then went on to describe some of the problems with the adapter, citing poor build quality as the cause.

Nvidia is yet to release an official statement on the matter, but if Igor’s Lab is to be believed, it seems to be taking steps to try to mitigate the problem. Will the GPUs need to be recalled? It’s hard to say, but let’s hope that Nvidia will shed some light on the matter soon.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Monica J. White
Monica J. White
Computing Writer
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
Nvidia may give the RTX 5080 a sweet consolation prize
The back of the Nvidia RTX 4080 Super graphics card.

Nvidia's best graphics cards are due for an update, and it seems that the RTX 5080 might get an unexpected boost with faster GDDR7 memory than even the flagship RTX 5090. That might be its sole consolation prize, though, because the gap between the two may turn out to be even bigger than in this generation.

First, the good news. Wccftech cites its own sources as it reports that the RTX 5080 will get 32Gbps memory modules from the get-go -- a significant upgrade over the RTX 5090 with its 28Gbps. The best part is that such a memory upgrade would bring the RTX 5080 to a whopping 1TB/s of total bandwidth, marking a huge improvement over the RTX 4080 Super, which maxes out at 736GB/s.

Read more
Nvidia just dropped a big hint about the RTX 50-series release date
nvidia rtx 4080 review 12

Speculation has been running rampant about Nvidia's launch of next-gen RTX 50-series GPUs, but the company itself just dropped a big hint about when they may show up. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to take the stage as the keynote speaker of CES 2025 on January 6, where there's a good chance we'll hear about Nvidia's next generation of graphics cards.

Although Nvidia is at the annual tech show each year, Huang -- who recently surpassed the worth of all of Intel -- hasn't made an appearance in five years. The executive will likely focus heavily on AI, as it has catapulted Nvidia to become one of the world's wealthiest companies. But RTX 50-series GPUs should make an appearance, too. Nvidia usually takes advantage of CES to launch new graphics cards.

Read more
These AMD and Nvidia release date updates are giving me whiplash
PNY RTX 4080 with the power connector attached.

If you're wondering about the future of Nvidia's and AMD's top graphics cards, you're not alone. We all know it's almost time for the next generation of GPUs to be released, but no one knows when exactly that's going to happen. Today, another source weighed in with conflicting information regarding the release dates of the RTX 50 series and the RX 8000 series, and honestly, it's all starting to give me whiplash at this point.

At the beginning of 2024, most enthusiasts and leakers alike believed that all three GPU makers -- AMD, Intel, and Nvidia -- would launch their next-gen products before the end of the year. In fact, early leaks pointed to an end-of-summer release for AMD. As time went on, we've all tempered our expectations as it became clear that we're unlikely to see any new graphics cards before early 2025.

Read more