Nvidia released the GeForce RTX 4090 earlier this month, and while very few can afford or house the massive new GPU, the few that can have reported some strange things going on with the 4090’s power requirements. Gamers Nexus noted that the 4090 suffers from transient power spikes that were wildly out of the ordinary for graphics cards, and now there are reports that those spikes can sometimes melt the 4090’s power connectors.

The problem here is relatively simple: the RTX 4090 needs a lot of power to do all the bajillions of calculations per second it does, and all that power is going into a cable that narrows down to too few pins. Put too much juice through a line that’s not big enough and it will heat up hot enough to melt.

Obviously, a video card that catches fire is bad. A fire in your case can cost you not just your video card but also every other expensive component that goes into a gaming rig. PC gamers are therefore naturally inclined to help Nvidia fix this issue as quickly as possible.


Those suggestions range from changing the power connector on the RTX 4090 to something a little beefier (like the same plug you'd find on an electric stove) to simply including more pins on the connection port. Others are a direct connection to overhead power lines that have the gauge necessary to handle next-gen computational tasks.

This being the internet, most are just roasting Nvidia for releasing an ultra-powerful video card that has a flaw fatal enough to cause it to catch fire. Nvidia is rumored to have delayed or even canceled the RTX 4090 Ti for this very reason, so perhaps the 4090 was just on the cusp of what Nvidia considered safe.

Nvidia has reportedly reached out to individuals that have posted pictures of their melted 4090 power connectors, but so far hasn’t made any announcements. I’d recommend gamers avoid overclocking their new 4090 until we know it's safe.

Posted: Nov 02, 2022 1:14 pm
Related Forum: PC Building Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/pc-gamers-roasting-nvidia-4090-power-cable/