NVIDIA Tells AICs to Collect RTX 4090 Cards with Burnt Power Connectors, Send Them to HQ

NVIDIA is responding to reports of the 12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR power connector of its new GeForce RTX 4090 “Ada” graphics cards being unreliable, and posing a potential fire hazard. The company has reportedly instructed its add-in card (AIC) partners, companies that sell custom-design graphics cards; to collect all retail graphics cards with burnt power connectors, and send them over directly to NVIDIA HQ for investigation. Reports of the 12VHPWR connectors overheating due to improper terminal contact aren’t new, but this is the first time a retail product implementing the connector is experiencing reliability issues.

It came to light when a Reddit user posted pictures of a melted 12VHPWR connector from an NVIDIA-supplied adapter that converts four 8-pin PCIe to one 600 W-capable 12VHPWR. There is also charring on the female connector on the card, but the user claims that the card is functional. Later this week, another Reddit user posted similar pictures of a burnt connector for their RTX 4090 card. NVIDIA director of global PR for GeForce, Bryan Del Rizzo, in a statement to The Verge, said that the company is in touch with the first owner who reported this problem, and is reaching out to the other, as part of their investigation.

The GeForce RTX 4090 isn’t just a thick graphics card, with air-cooled custom-design cards typically being 4 slots thick; but is also a “tall” card, with heights typically in the neighborhood of 150-160 mm. Add the 35 mm minimum clearance recommended for the 12VHPWR to not bend in order to function safely; and you have a total effective add-on card height requirement of 180-190 mm, which can be a very tight fit for most ATX mid-tower cases that offer a maximum CPU cooler height clearance of around 160-170 mm. A bending of the connector is almost a certainty.