Gigabyte is taking the initiative to stop its high-end RTX 40 series graphics cards from cracking. MisinformationALWAYS on the Nvidia subreddit reports that Gigabyte introduced new RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 Gaming OC graphics card revisions featuring bolstered PCB designs less susceptible to cracking near the PCIe locking mechanism. This new PCB design was also discovered on Gigabyte's new RTX 4080 Super models.
Gigabyte has had a steady track record of poor PCB reliability issues, starting with the RTX 30 series. Still, this problem has escalated to encompass many board partner models of Nvidia's high-end RTX 40 series GPUs. Graphics card coolers have become significantly larger and heavier since the RTX 20 series, forcing graphics card PCBs to handle more weight than they normally would otherwise.
MisinformationALWAYS shared an image of the new PCB design Gigabyte has created for its new RTX 40 series revisions. The new PCB design features more surface area near the PCIe locking tab, where most (if not all) of Gigabyte's RTX 40 series GPUs were cracking. Gigabyte's outgoing PCB design is much more fragile, featuring a long gap between the PCIe locking point and the bottom of the graphics card itself.
Only time will tell if Gigabyte's new PCB design rectifies its PCB cracking problem. But there's no denying that the new design looks substantially more durable than its outgoing designs. Hopefully, this design will be duplicated by other add-in board partners experiencing the same issues on their high-end RTX 40 series graphics cards.
This PCB cracking phenomenon is quite severe, where almost every RTX 4090 is at risk. A few months ago, we covered a report where a repair technician received 19 cracked RTX 4090 graphics cards, all featuring PCB cracks near the PCIe locking mechanism and making the graphics cards completely inoperable. It's still unknown how many RTX 4080s or 4090s are suffering from this issue, but it seems to be more pronounced in pre-built systems that were roughly handled in shipping.
If you want to pick up one of Gigabyte's newly revised RTX 4090 and 4080 graphics cards, the new models go by the v1.1 revision. Gigabyte's RTX 4080 Supers all come with the new PCB design, so you don't have to worry about PCB revisions with Nvidia's new Super GPU.
