Charred RTX 4070 fell victim to a PSU without protection feature

Salvage from a horrifyingly charred RTX 4070

One of the most horrifyingly burned graphics cards that we have seen has been featured in a components salvage video. Software developer and hobbyist graphics card repairer Patryk runs the DIY Repair Hour YouTube channel, where work on this seriously charred Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 was uploaded.

It is worth highlighting that this isn't a GPU from a house fire or other external 'act of God' style catastrophe. The card apparently set on fire in a working PC which suffered from a power connector issue. Patryk was told that the PSU in use was from a mining rig, and this PSU didn't have the luxury of overcurrent protection (OCP), so the combustion of the power connector and ensuing electrical mayhem didn't cut the power delivery. From the video comments, it seems to be that the RTX 4070 owner was alerted of the burning card by "the horrible smell."

RTX 4070 that caught on fire [thanks to iamthenez] - YouTube

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Patryk's conclusion is that the burning "certainly started at or near the 12V PCIE connector." So Nvidia's compact, concentrated power connector isn't completely blameless here. However, using a PSU without basic safety features like OCP was an obvious issue, allowing this unfortunate event to go much further than it should have. In fact, we can't even see any remnants of the controversial power connector, as the combustion was so intense.

As this Palit RTX 4070 was so far gone, Patryk and the graphics card owner had no illusions about its repairability. From the start, the mission here was to simply salvage any good components that remained on the PCB.

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Fast forwarding to the end of the video, you will learn that the biggest and most expensive component here, the GPU die, is claimed to be "healthy." The TechTuber verified this with a multitude of multimeter measurements. Sadly, we didn't see the GPU put onto a working PCB to confirm it was AOK, though.

Other components salvaged from this charred mess include a selection of memory chips, power stages, video BIOS, some ports, and other things. Patryk didn't verify all these bits were 100% good, but assumed they would be fine as they were further away from the fire zone than the GPU core.

If there's a lesson to be learned here, it is that yes-indeed pay attention to your tricky Nvidia GPU power connector - but don't neglect using an appropriate and high quality PSU.

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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

23 Comments Comment from the forums

Zaranthos

Entire rant eliminated by (probably) AI moderation deeming my sarcasm "inappropriate or some nonsense" no matter how tame I tried to dumb down the language. AI has no sense of humor. gaming pc power requirements....
Reply
Alvar "Miles" Udell

Never underestimate the stupidity of some people who will splurge on every component yet use the cheapest bargain basement PSU...
Reply
nimbulan

I'm confused as to how this could happen. Even without OCP, if a power connector starts melting the voltage will drop and any load on the GPU will quickly crash, which cuts the vast majority of power draw off. How could enough power continue to flow to actually result in a fire?
Reply
DingusDog

A risky PSU will ruin your components. Who knew?
Reply
ezst036

RTX40x0 owner:

My video card is faster than yours!

RTX30x0 owner:

Yeah but mine won't allow itself to melt.
Reply
Notton

Alvar Miles Udell said:
Never underestimate the stupidity of some people who will splurge on every component yet use the cheapest bargain basement PSU...
To be fair, a 4070 isn't exactly a high end GPU.
It's a 200W card with $600 price tag.
The maximum it'll hit is 225W with an OC.

And the dumb connector allows for 600W power throughput. It can get hot enough to melt the connector before OCP ever kicks in. I think you're more likely to see short circuit protection kick in when it melts the cables.
Reply
ilukey77

Alvar Miles Udell said:
Never underestimate the stupidity of some people who will splurge on every component yet use the cheapest bargain basement PSU...
Ive prattled on about overkilling PSU's on theses forums for a while now.

Nothing wrong with going a few hundred watts above spec just to safe guard and a decent brand with proven reliability for a few more $$$

( or to the point of dont blow all your cash on the fancy high end stuff only to cheap out on a crappy PSU for the simple minded )

Dont know how many pc part picker lists ive seen where they have ALL this fancy high end stuff and find the crappiest PSU know to man or the just enough wattage to do the job ..

Only to not understand that the PSU is like the life blood of the PC and when it goes BANG other things can go BANG too !!
Reply
bit_user

ilukey77 said:
Ive prattled on about overkilling PSU's on theses forums for a while now.

Nothing wrong with going a few hundred watts above spec just to safe guard
That wasn't the issue. In fact, a bigger PSU without OCP perhaps could've resulted in an even greater calamity!

ilukey77 said:
and a decent brand with proven reliability for a few more $$$
This is the point. The amount of money that user saved by going with a sketchy PSU was far less than it ended up costing.

Also, a good PSU won't fry anything, when you overload it. At worst, you'll get random reboots. That's not great, but the point is that you're not really risking anything by not way over-spec'ing the PSU for the amount of output you actually need.
Reply
bit_user

Notton said:
To be fair, a 4070 isn't exactly a high end GPU.
It's a 200W card with $600 price tag.
Oh, to live in a time when $600 isn't exactly a high-end GPU...

The main comment I wanted to make is that it still sort of surprises me that it was worth salvaging the non-fried components. I guess a GPU repairer can use them to fix another card someone sends in, but I wouldn't like to buy such a franken-GPU on the open market. Maybe, for pennies on the dollar...
Reply
ilukey77

bit_user said:
That wasn't the issue. In fact, a bigger PSU without OCP perhaps could've resulted in an even greater calamity!
In this case sure but PC builders in general who dont allow for power spike or use generic PSU calculators that almost aways say a 650w psu for almost every build is where the problem is !!

My point was going a bit above wattage never really hurts !!

My logic is this being as my PSU is 1000w that ive now used in my system for over 4 years now so ive gone basically from a 5600x 6900xt to a 5800x3d 6900xt then the AM5 swap to 7600x then 7900xtx then 7800x3d all while using the same psu ..

IF nothing else thats value for money right???

If i was going ( which im not ) to look at rebuild say 5090 9800x3d i would without a hesitation go the seasonic prime 2200w psu and say yeah im done for the life of the warranty PSU for what ever AMD or Nvidia throw at me ..

$960aud well spent for 12 years of warrantied PC building so why not ??

super over kill YES maybe1000% yes :)

But fully warranted that the money i will save in the long run is crazy !!

A decent corsair 1000w isnt really expensive and 10 years of PC building if your in the low to mid range saves you money in the long run !!

If AMD do something decent next gen , like bring back my around the $1000usd decent flagship GPU ( not going to bother with either AMD or Nvidia this gen ) i will seriously look at the 2200w psu to replace my aging corsair HX 1000
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