NVIDIA - about burnt-out RTX 4090 connectors: 50 known cases, users' fault, but the case is under warranty

NVIDIA finally issued an official statement regarding the problem with melting 12VHPWR power connectors plugged into GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards.
After weeks of investigation, the company said the source of the problem was mating connectors improperly.NVIDIA said it knows of about 50 cases of melted connectors around the world.
To date, the company has concluded that the common cause of the problem is that \"the connector was not fully inserted into the video card.\" In fact, similar conclusions were reached the other day by the experts of the YouTube channel GamersNexus, who conducted their own independent investigation.Above - incompletely inserted connector, below - fully inserted connectorThe company noted that it is studying different approaches that would allow users to make sure that the connector is connected correctly before turning on the video card.
So far, NVIDIA recommends first plugging the power connector into the graphics card, making sure it is fully inserted and has no gaps, and then plugging the graphics card into a PCIe slot on the motherboard.NVIDIA also noted that it is committed to supporting customers and providing a fast warranty process for graphics cards, \"regardless of the cable or card used.
\"NVIDIA is still reviewing reports of melted connectors and looking for ways to ensure the card is properly connected to the power supply.
At the same time, the company did not specify whether the latter would entail changes to the existing design or some other drastic measures.
Also note that NVIDIA's statement about 50 cases indicates that the problem is not that widespread, given that NVIDIA and its partners have clearly sold tens, if not hundreds of thousands of GeForce RTX 4090s worldwide.

NVIDIA to unveil new GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards Jan.3

At yesterday's quarterly event, NVIDIA management admitted to being quite pleased with the market debut of the first two members of the Ada Lovelace gaming architecture in the form of GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards, but is soon going to introduce new models in the family.
Now we found out that the next NVIDIA presentation will be held on January 3, at CES 2023.Source image: NVIDIAOn the eve of NVIDIA sent out the invitations to the press at a virtual event, which will be held during CES 2023 in Las Vegas, reports news resource PCMag.
The presentation will be broadcasted on January 3 at 8 am local time.
The only thing mentioned is NVIDIA's willingness to share information about \"cutting-edge innovations made possible by accelerated computing\".
You can watch the broadcast directly on the official NVIDIA website.It is possible that the event in early January, among other things, will allow NVIDIA to bring back the relevance of GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card with 12 GB of memory, whose announcement was hastily canceled earlier.
Most likely, this graphics solution will debut under another name, because earlier NVIDIA employees acknowledged the mistake of using the designation \"GeForce RTX 4080\" for two different graphics cards.
It is assumed that the said graphics card with 12 GB of memory can go under the name GeForce RTX 4070 Ti with a price lower than the initially planned $ 899.
The launch of AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ($999) and Radeon RX 7900 XT ($899) next month forces NVIDIA to think about countermeasures, which would not undermine profitability of GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080.
The appearance of a third video card in the family could well restore the balance of power.

NVIDIA says huge demand for RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 - the company is preparing many new GeForce RTX 40-series products

CFO Colette Kress took the opening remarks at the quarterly reporting conference NVIDIA called the past stages of debut of graphics cards with GPUs based on Ada Lovelace architecture extremely successful.
GeForce RTX 4090 has been sold out in many markets since mid-October, the GeForce RTX 4080 is already on sale, and in general, NVIDIA is ready to offer \"many new products\" with this gaming architecture.Image source: NVIDIAThe last promise was made by the founder and permanent head of NVIDIA Jensen Huang (Jensen Huang).
He stressed that now Ada Lovelace architecture carriers are positioned in the upper price segment.
GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards were released in large quantities, but this did not prevent customers from buying out their first batch in just minutes, as stated by the CEO of NVIDIA.
The market, he said, has received both the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 very favorably, and therefore management is very enthusiastic about this debut.
In addition, it proves the strength, resilience and transparency of the gaming segment of the market, as summarized by the company's founder.In the third quarter of the current fiscal year, as explained by NVIDIA management in response to a related question from analysts at the quarterly event, the value equivalent of product inventory increased by $560 million sequentially.According to the company's CFO, this increase was only partly due to the need to accumulate a certain inventory of new architecture media: Ada Lovelace in the gaming segment and Hopper in c The networking segment, which is chiefly served by Mellanox products, also had a significant impact on the stock growth.
The company had to write off $702 mn of stocks, but the bulk of these losses were accounted for by A100 computing gas pedals.
Recall, the latter were intended for use in server systems by Chinese customers, but in the third quarter, after the new U.S.
sanctions the company hastily offered them a replacement in the form of a chip A800, whose performance is limited at the hardware level, and therefore avoids the U.S.
sanctions.
As a result, demand from Chinese customers switched to new \"alternative solutions\" and part of the stock of old A100s had to be written off.
As noted by NVIDIA executives at the quarterly event, the negative impact of sanctions in the third quarter was largely offset by the introduction of gas pedals A800 to the Chinese market, clearly adapted to the new U.S.
export control requirements.

Yeston presented its version of GeForce RTX 4090 - this is the first flagship graphics card for the brand

Chinese brand Yeston started sales of GeForce RTX 4090 Deluxe graphics card.
Curiously enough, for Yeston this is the first card of the flagship segment.
The manufacturer has long been producing solutions based on NVIDIA and AMD chips, but until then has not released graphics cards such as the GeForce RTX 3090 and Radeon RX 6900 XT, being limited to models of low and medium segments.
Source images: YestonJust like VideoCardz says, the novelty Yeston GeForce RTX 4090 Deluxe is almost a literal copy of previously introduced models GeForce RTX 4090 Phantom from another Chinese manufacturer, Gainward.Videokarta built on a non-reference printed circuit board with 20-phase power subsystem VRM with the scheme 16 + 4.
It has one 12+4 pin 12VHPWR power connector.
It has a massive three fan cooling system and will consume 470 W of power only.
In the PC card case takes more than three slots expansion, and its weight is almost 2 pounds.At the core of the Yeston GeForce RTX 4090 Deluxe graphics processor AD102 with 16 384 cores CUDA.
The card has on board 24 GB of memory GDDR6X with 384-bit bus support.
Factory GPU overclocking at the gas pedal does not.
The chip runs at up to 2520 MHz.
The card is priced at 14,999 yuan (about $2060).
Deliveries should begin next week.

Users may be to blame for problems with GeForce RTX 4090 power connector

Users themselves may be the source of problems with 12+4-pin 12VHPWR power connectors on GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards.
Corsair power supply expert with a nickname JonnyGuru believes that users incorrectly connect adapters or cables to the video card power connector, which causes the melting of connectors.To recap, shortly after the launch of GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards in the web began to appear reports of melting power connectors 12VHPWR.
Initially it was assumed that the reason for this are low-quality adapters, which NVIDIA and its partners put in the set of video cards.
These adapters turn four 8-pin connectors into one new 12+4-pin connector.
Later on it turned out that even when connecting a video card without an adapter, i.e.
directly to a modern power adapter with a native 12VHPWR cable, the connector can melt.
Now JonnyGuru came up with the theory that users might not fully plug the 12+4 pin connector into the graphics card slot, which could lead to connection problems and lead to increased resistance, higher temperatures and melting of the connectors.
This theory is not new and has not yet been 100% confirmed.
Nevertheless, JonnyGuru told us how exactly he came to this version of events.
Firstly, the expert connected Corsair HX1500i power adapter to GeForce RTX 4090 video card, but using only three 8-pin connectors, which should provide higher current and thus higher heating.
To replicate the problem and cause the connector to overheat, JonnyGuru started messing with the connectors, especially trying to break the solder strength.
After the tests everything remained in its place, it was not so easy to break the connector, and the temperature did not exceed 53 °C.Then the expert investigated all known cases of connector melting, looking through every published photo and comparing undamaged connections with the ones which faced melting.
The conclusion was, \"ANY 12VHPWR connector has the potential to melt because ANY of them can be difficult to insert.
\u003C...> VERY HARD to fully insert\".The expert noted that in many cases the damaged connector was not fully, fully plugged into the video card - there was a small gap that could lead to problems.
JonnyGuru recommends users who are worried about their GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards to use an electrical contact lubricant which will ensure better contact between the connector and the video card connector.NVIDIA has not yet given any comment on the situation.
Meanwhile, PCI-SIG, which is in charge of certifying everything related to the PCIe standard, including power connectors, has distributed a notice that hints at the upcoming version of the 12+4-pin 12VHPWR connector.
A fresh specification could be published by December 6, 2022.

Bloggers showed a prototype GeForce RTX 4090 from EVGA, which will never be released again

EVGA left the graphics card market in September due to a disagreement with NVIDIA, refusing to release new GeForce RTX 40-series products.
However, before making that decision, the manufacturer assembled several prototype GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards for testing.
Some of these gas pedals fell into the hands of popular technobloggers.One of those who received an early engineering sample of EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 in his collection of graphics gas pedals was JayzTwoCents.
According to its status, the graphics card doesn't even have an official name.
Instead of GeForce RTX 4090, the manufacturer used the \"Next Gen Graphics\" label.
Blogger shared his impressions about the unreleased video card in his latest video.The first thing he noted is a very compact for the non-reference version of the size of the prototype GeForce RTX 4090 from EVGA.
He compared it to the ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix and pointed out that many other vendors' GeForce RTX 4090 prototypes look more compact compared to the latter.
EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 top and ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix bottomThe EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 prototype is slightly longer than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW from the same manufacturer.
The new card has a larger cooling system with a more massive radiator and tighter arrangement of the ribs, as well as larger diameter fans.
EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW top and GeForce RTX 4090 bottom.
Image source: YouTube / JayzTwoCents The EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 sample shown was to be part of the For The Win 3 (FTW3) series and to add to the product range equipped with the EVGA ICX cooling system.
A distinctive feature of the EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 was supposed to be a 12+4 pin power connector located on the back end of the gas pedal.
Such location of the connector allows to provide enough space for proper positioning of the cable and power adapter from four 8-pin to one 12+4-pin 12VHPWR connector, which has been questioned a lot lately.
Unfortunately, so far none of the manufacturers of GeForce RTX 4090 has placed the connector on the end.
The power connector is usually located at the top of the graphics card, which leaves very little space for cable routing, which in this case is very close to the wall of the PC case.The prototype EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 turned out to be fully operational.
It is based on a qualification sample of the AD102 graphics processor.
The card can even be controlled via EVGA's proprietary Precision software.
Image source: YouTube / JayzTwoCentsSome features, however, were still unavailable here.
For example, the software did not allow to increase the power consumption indicator for more efficient manual overclocking.
Despite this, even with the standard power settings the blogger was able to overclock the graphics processor of the video card to a frequency above 3.0 GHz at the standard 2520 MHz, as well as to experiment with the GDDR6X memory frequency settings.Steve Burke from the YouTube channel GamersNexus also received an EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 prototype for review.
His interest was primarily in taking the graphics card apart.
Steve showed that the solution from EVGA had to be equipped with a very reinforced VRM power subsystem.
Disassembling the card also revealed that its cooling system included a large radiator with a large evaporation chamber and seven 8mm diameter heat pipes.

Manufacturers have started replacing the power adapters that come with the GeForce RTX 4090

Gainward has decided to delay shipping new batches of GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards in their own variants until mid-November.
The manufacturer wants to replace the potentially problematic complete power adapters with four 8-pin connectors on one side and 12+4 pin 12VHPRW connector on the other.Image source: VideoCardzThe news was shared by one of the Reddit forum users from Australia.
He ordered a Gainward card in one of the local stores, but he said in correspondence that the vendor has decided to replace the power adapter included in the kit, so the order will have to wait a bit.
According to the seller, other manufacturers of GeForce RTX 4090 are likely to come to a similar decision.
Image source: Reddit / TechFastThe retailer expects Gainward to be able to replace the adapter by mid-November.
After that, the retailer will be able to ship the graphics gas pedal to the customer.
The seller adds in his letter that the replacement adapter is probably due to the increasing number of complaints from owners of GeForce RTX 4090, who encountered its melting due to overheating during operation.Earlier noted, the problem of melting began to occur not only in the power adapter that came with the video cards, but also in native cables with 12VHPWR connector from the latest power supplies.
The number of such cases is still very small, so it is too early to draw conclusions.
The company is conducting its own investigation into the incidents, but has not yet given any official comment on the progress of the process.
It is possible that the manufacturer is still trying to figure out the causes of the problem.
At the same time no one recalls GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards from sale.

New problems with GeForce RTX 4090 - Genuine PSU cables with 12+4-pin connector also melt

Late last month some owners of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards reported that their power adapters with four 8-pin connectors on one side and 12+4 pin 12VHPRW connector on the other side burnt out.
Now on Reddit and Facebook* there were reports about cases of melting of not only adapters, but also of native 12VHPRW power cables from ATX 3.0 power supplies.Image source: Ricky TO / Facebook*Despite quite a high price of GeForce RTX 4090, the gas pedal is one of the best options for gamers.
However, against this backdrop, it's not the price of the graphics card that scares consumers away, but the fact that the included 12+4-pin power adapter could be dangerous.
Only on Reddit there were 18 such cases with video cards from different vendors.
NVIDIA responded to these reports and launched an investigation, instructing vendors to return faulty graphics cards to the lab to investigate the problem.One Reddit community member was using an MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio 24G graphics card and a MED Ai1300P power supply.
At that time there were some reports on the Internet about possible melting of the video card adapter, so he decided to use an ATX 3.0 power supply with a native 12VHPWR connector.
However, after a short period of use, the power connector of the graphics card still melted, which can be seen in the photos posted by the user.
MSI has reportedly contacted the user and offered to replace the video card and power supply.NVIDIA has not yet made an official statement following the investigation.
Perhaps, the manufacturer is still trying to figure out the causes of the problem.
At the moment we know about the cases of 12+4-pin connector melting, but it can't be excluded that the problem is not in the connector design.
It could be that the cause of the meltdown is the 12VHPWR connector, poor quality components or the video card itself in combination with different factors.
* Included in the list of public associations and religious organizations in respect of which there is an enforceable court decision to liquidate or ban their activities on the grounds provided by Federal Law No.
114-FZ of July 25, 2002 \"On Counteracting Extremist Activity\".

Manufacturers have started replacing the power adapters that come with the GeForce RTX 4090