It seems that the problem with 16 pin connectors that NVIDIA is including with each RTX 4090 card is causing more problems than we have already known. Users have reported how the so-called connectors 12VHPWR melt and spoil, even coming to damage the graphics card. But from Igor’s Lab don’t think that over-flexing or plugging and unplugging this adapter too many times is a problem, but the quality with which this adapter is made.
The problem only seems to affect NVIDIA adapters, adapters that is included with each NVIDIA RTX 4090 sold by themselves or other manufacturers. The NVIDIA adapter uses 4 14AWG cables for each of the 6 pins that the 12VHPWR connector has, this means that we have 4 thick wires for each pin. Also, the end wires are soldered to a single pin while the middle wires share two pins for each group of 4 wires to fill the 6 needed pins.
The solders made to join these wires and the adapter pins they are too thin and they can easily break when, for example, they are flexed. If one of the end wires ends up coming loose, all the current would flow through the central wiressomething for which they are not prepared and can cause high temperatures that can lead into a melted connector. The correct thing would be to use each connector pin with a 16AWG line as do those included in power supplies with this connector.
NVIDIA has ordered to collect all damaged cards to analyze the problem and has promised to replace the first notified case with this damage, although there should be no problem to make use of the guarantee in the rest of the models. We hope that NVIDIA’s interest in solving this problem arrive soon in the form of a solution for all users who have this connector and that seems to cause this data in some cases irreversible.
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Juan Antonio Soto
I am a Computer Engineer and my specialty is automation and robotics. My passion for hardware began at the age of 14 when I gutted my first computer: a 386 DX 40 with 4MB of RAM and a 210MB hard drive. I continue to give free rein to my passion in the technical articles that I write in Geeknetic. I spend most of my free time playing video games, contemporary and retro, on the more than 20 consoles I have, in addition to the PC.
