NVIDIA has been embroiled in controversy with its flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card and new 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connector, and now GamersNexus have done the world a favor... pushed it to its limits... melting the cable at over 250C.
The team at GamersNexus used an X-ray imaging and scanning electron microscope inspection for the card in a great amount of detail, done by a third-party failure-analysis lab on the 12VHPWR power connector. GamersNexus added that his personal sources at AIB partners say that the risk of issues on their GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards was somewhere between "0.05% and 0.1% which is virtually nothing... but it's still a major problem at the end of the day.
Anyone can have their 12VHPWR power connector on the flagship GeForce RTX 4090, especially if you don't plug it in correctly, or get foreign objects (how?!) or bits of plastic and metal that are induced in the process of seating the game, or at the end of the day, a manufacturing issue. The main issue seems to stem from people not seating the game properly, or pulling at it, or the cable out of the card at an angle. Boom, failure.
- Read more: NVIDIA: 'continue to investigate reports' of RTX 4090 + 16-pin power issues
- Read more: PCI-SIG now considering changes to problematic 12VHPWR connector
- Read more: NVIDIA working with AIBs 'around the clock' on GeForce RTX 4090s blowing up
- Read more: Multiple GeForce RTX 4090 cards DEAD, melted 16-pin power connectors!
Steve Burke, editor-in-chief of GamersNexus, said that multiple failure theories can now be thrown out -- with early reports suggesting weak solder joints on the adapter could see it break, but this isn't an issue -- GamersNexus' X-Ray cross-section scope at the cable with poor soldering means this theory is probably unlikely.
During the testing, the team removed 4 of the 6 of the 12-volt power plugs from the adapter cable, meaning they were feeding all of the power into the GeForce RTX 4090 through just two single 12-volt connectors, and yet they still didn't have a failure... it was all good.
