Reports of RTX 4090 12VHPWR Connectors Melting

User Reports of RTX 4090 12VHPWR Power Cable Melting

NVidia 4090 Power Connector Meme (source Reddit)

A user on Reddit has posted images of the melted 12VHPWR power connector of his Gigabyte RTX 4090 graphics card. A user by the handle reggie_gakil on reddit posted images of the burnt and melted cable and gpu connector. Many people blame the design of the new 12VHPWR “smart” power connector that NVidia has used since the 30 series cards, and now using in their newer 40 series cards.

12VHPWR Melted Connector (source reggie_gakil Reddit)

Later in the same thread, user NoDuelsPolicy posted that they had a melted power connector on their ASUS 4090 TUF Gaming OC graphics card.

Uh oh…

Another 4090 (ASUS 4090 TUF OC) with a damaged 12VHPWR power connector just got posted in the same reddit thread as the original Gigabyte card post from today.

This is slightly getting out of hand…@Buildzoid1 @Sebasti66855537 pic.twitter.com/oQnaywqBzq

— Vectral (@Vectral555) October 24, 2022

Smaller not better?

There has been some criticism for NVidia adopting the 12VHPWR to their graphics cards. The current 4090 comes with a four 8 pin to 12VHPWR 12 pin connector which many wondered how the 12VHPWR could handle the power needed for the new gpus. The newer 12 pin connector uses smaller pins as well as 4 non-power pins (2 in use, 2 not currently used) that let the graphics card know how many 8 pin connectors are plugged into the adapter. This tells the gpu what to set the power limit at. If you don’t plug in all of the 8 pin connectors to the adapter then the card will lower its power limit, and slow down your graphics card. This design can allow power supplies to “tell” the gpu how much power it can provide, and the gpu can lower its power consumption accordingly.

12VHPWR 600 Watt Power Connector

Watch the Bends

One of the culprits of the burnt connector could of been of a harsh angle of the cable from the connector. The smaller connector and sharp bends can cause the pins inside the connector to not seat correctly. CabeMod has a great chart that explains on how you should have 35mm clearance from the connector before bend to be safe. This 35mm clearance could be difficult, if not impossible in many builds. NVidia places the connector on the gpu on the top of the card. With the size of the gpu, and the clearance between the gpu and side panel, 35 mm can be impossible to maintain. JayzTwoCents mentioned this in one of his recent videos, as well as explains the 12VHPWR connector and his concerns. His video is worth a watch.

UPDATE 10/25

A post on Twitter shows another RTX 4090 with a melted power connector. Charlie Woods posted that, after some benchmarking he noticed the connector issue. He was able to power down before “the smoke got bad”.