According to NorthridgeFix, incidents of what’s been termed “user errors” with NVIDIA’s flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards spontaneously melting their power connectors due to their hazardous 12VHPWR power connector have significantly surged in frequency.
In November, we highlighted the seriousness of the issue with NVIDIA’s premium RTX 4090 graphics cards burning their power connectors. Despite being attributed solely to faulty cables and adapters, including those from CableMod, the problem was downplayed by the tech press and journalists.
According to NorthridgeFix, his repair shop received approximately 100 units of RTX 4090 GPUs, all exhibiting the same common issue of burnt or melted power cables, back in November. However, over the past five months, it has become evident that the RTX 4090 has a significant design flaw, which of course happens to be its 12VHPWR connector.
NorthridgeFix now reports repairing around 200 burnt power connectors monthly, double the previous amount.
In his recent video titled “RTX 4090’s Still Melting” he surprisingly comes to the defense of CableMod, who have been unfairly blamed by tech journalists and AIB board vendors. CableMod’s reputation has been unjustly tarnished due to NVIDIA’s greed. As a result, CableMod has decided to cancel their angled adapters and offer refunds to customers, acknowledging them as “faulty.”
CableMod took proactive steps by covering the costs and refunding damaged hardware in cases where RTX 4090s caught fire while using their adapters or cables. This initiative was undertaken despite the fact that the phenomenon occurred regardless of the specific cable or adapter used by consumers, including those with the revised “12V-2×6” connector.
NorthridgeFix claims that CableMod actually produced a good product, but it was built on a flawed foundation. Which of course goes without mentioning the brand new 12VHPWR standard used by NVIDIA, also known as the 12+4 or 16-pin power connector.
NVIDIA has responded to this issue by shipping a revised edition of this connector with all RTX 40 models. These revised connectors feature shorter sense pins, ensuring that the GPU only receives additional power when the power cable is fully inserted.
However, despite these efforts, his repair shop has only received MORE damaged GPUs with melted connectors, with the number now reaching 200 replacements in a single month alone.
In the video, a box containing approximately 200 connectors was displayed, leading NorthridgeFix to assert that CableMod has been inadvertently implicated in the fallout resulting from the widespread issue of faulty hardware utilizing their premium connectors. It remains unspecified whether newer cases are based on the revised or older standard.
According to Reddit discussions, incidents of RTX 4090s catching fire are still occurring frequently, with few reports indicating that even the RTX 4080 also melts its own power connector. This is peculiar given that the primary cause for concern revolves around the RTX 4090, which has a significantly higher power consumption figure, exceeding 600 Watts when overclocked.
NVIDIA, predictably, has refused to acknowledge the problem or take responsibility, a stance that warrants a class action lawsuit. This issue stands as the biggest blemish for their RTX 4000 series. Despite this setback, the RTX 4090 graphics card remains the standout product among NVIDIA’s latest generation, not necessarily in terms of price and value, but due to its exceptional performance and hardware capabilities.
In the ADA Lovelace range, all other GeForce products face fierce competition from AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 series, which generally outperform them, offer more VRAM, and are cheaper.
The RTX 4090 stands alone as the only NVIDIA GeForce product in this generation with no real competition, primarily due to its exceptional performance. However, it comes with a significant drawback: the high risk of its power connector melting, potentially leading to a tragic house fire if left unattended.
This isn’t the first time NVIDIA customers have felt misled. The GTX 970, for instance, was marketed as having 4GB of VRAM, but it wasn’t disclosed that its memory configuration was split into segments of 3.5GB and 512MB with vastly reduced bandwidth capabilities. This resulted in a class action lawsuit against the company, which eventually settled and compensated affected consumers with a meager $30.
Despite these issues, there has been no authoritative action taken against NVIDIA for their decision to abandon the conventional 8-pin standard in favor of the unsafe and hazardous 12VHPWR connector.
NVIDIA made this decision to save money on circuitry and achieve a more compact solution with smaller packaging, showing little to no regard for consumer safety. Despite an entire year passing since RTX 4090 graphics cards began self-combusting, consumers have taken no action against NVIDIA.
Consumers have also refrained from taking action against faulty RTX 3090 graphics cards, which suffer from inadequate power delivery regulation. Numerous reports have surfaced of units dying due to games with uncapped framerates, with such games being Diablo 4 and Amazon’s New World.
Additionally, the RTX 3090 features 12 pairs of GDDR6X memory chips in “clamshell mode,” leading to significant heat issues for the memory chips on the backside. And NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 is plagued with design flaws, notably the “PCB Cracking” issue.
The RTX 3060 Ti exhibits issues for those equipped with Hynix memory modules, and practically the entire RTX 2000 series can be deemed faulty. Notably, the RTX 2080 Ti suffers from faulty vapor chambers, and there’s the infamous “space invaders” fiasco caused by botched Micron VRAM.
After reaping record profits from their entrenched AI monopoly, NVIDIA has experienced a substantial increase in value, boasting a market capitalization of $2.2 trillion, their stock prices have surged over 100% within a six month window.
Given their financial status, it’s evident that NVIDIA would have no trouble covering the costs associated with their faulty hardware, but let’s just ignore that.
They have become desensitized to the point where the smell of melting plastic is seen as normal, indicating that their expensive high-end toy, crafted from sand and plastic, is functioning as intended.
NorthridgeFix alone has repaired over 2,500 RTX 4090 graphics cards throughout the span of an entire year, despite the fact that similar repair shops are operational worldwide.
