Nvidia is calling for all partner-manufactured GeForce RTX 4090 boards affected by the melting power plug problem we’re definitely not calling ‘connectorgate’ to be gathered up and returned to HQ. According to a post on Igor’s Lab, a briefing was sent to all AIB partners this morning (27th) that the cards should be shipped back home for analysis, though it’s not clear if they’re being sent to Nvidia or the AIB manufacturer’s nerve center.
Recent days have seen a procession of unlucky owners of the best graphics card currently available discovering their 16-pin 12VHPWR power connector, which bridges the gap between the card and four eight-pin power feeds from an ATX 3.0 power supply, and delivers up to 600W of juice, had partially melted. One Gigabyte card owner who posted on Reddit has received a replacement card, with his thermally compromised GPU being sent back to Nvidia for inspection.
The cause of the heat-based unpleasantness is yet to be discovered, and hypotheses include bending the connector at too tight an angle, the wires inside being too close together, or simple bad soldering (not a user serviceable task, even with the best soldering irons). Igor’s Lab certainly believes the problem lies in the adapters’ internal soldering. Still, whatever the reason, it does not appear to have spread past the Nvidia-branded adapter supplied with the cards, which is manufactured by a third-party specialist company.
Nvidia has yet to make an official statement on the matter beyond that it is investigating the reports. While there's not yet a recall of the power connectors, or indeed the cards themselves, such an issue with the trailblazing premium launch card for a whole new generation of GPUs must be embarrassing for Nvidia, so it’s good to see the beginnings of a robust response here, if the report is accurate.
