Nvidia lastly broke its silence and says improperly seated 12VHPWR connectors are largely guilty for these GeForce RTX 4090 power cable meltdowns.

The firm, which to date has been mum aside from to substantiate it was investigating the issue, issued a statement to Gamers Nexus that additionally confirmed what number of circumstances it is aware of of.

“We are actively investigating the reports. We are aware of about 50 cases globally,” an organization spokesperson informed Gamers Nexus editor-in-chief Stephen Burke, in line with a video Gamers Nexus posted to its YouTube channel Friday morning.

“Our findings to date suggest that a common issue is that connectors are not fully plugged into the graphics card,” Nvidia informed Burke. “To help ensure the connector is secure, we recommend plugging the power dongle into the graphics card first to ensure it’s firmly and evenly plugged in, before plugging the graphics card into the motherboard.”

Nvidia officers additionally informed Burke that returned cable adapters all appeared to point out put on injury indicating they weren’t totally seated. The firm additionally posted its statement on its customer help page the place it exhibits what a correctly inserted cable appears like.

Nvidia’s assertion largely appears to again up what Burke and his crew found yesterday: An excessively unfastened 12VHPWR connector within the GPU can result in excessive temperatures which melts the connector.

In the Gamers Nexus investigation, the failed connectors Burke obtained usually had bodily injury, indicating the plug had largely backed out of the GPU. Gamers Nexus additionally largely concluded that particles from manufacturing, in addition to particles attributable to shoppers probably inserting and eradicating the connector, might probably trigger the RTX 4090 cables to soften however the most definitely trigger was a unfastened connector.

Others, together with Techlab.net.br’s Ronaldo Buassali and Jon Gerow, Director of Research at Corsair, had finished their very own testing beforehand and concluded the connector is nicely capable of deal with the present being pushed by way of it—as long as it’s totally linked.

Of course, the lingering query is whether or not the improper insertions stem from an underlying connector design situation or not. With proof now clear that the cable is succesful supporting the ability behind it, many are questioning if the latch might be improved or not.

Nvidia officers did inform Burke that “We are investigating additional ways to ensure that the connector is secure before powering on the graphics card.”

Brad Chacos/IDG

Other concepts have been floated, equivalent to having the playing cards refuse to publish if the sense pins on the plugs should not totally seated. The PCI-SIG group, in reality, has been stated to be contemplating design adjustments to the brand new plug.

Nvidia additionally responded to considerations by shoppers that it will not honor warranties if a shopper makes use of a “third-party adapter” 12VHPWR connector, such because the customized and modded right-angle cables persons are shopping for in hopes of avoiding a melted connector. That raised considerations Nvidia and board companions would then not honor a guaranty if the native 12VHPWR connector on a brand new PSU was used.

In an announcement launched to each PCWorld an organization spokesman stated the priority was unwarranted. “NVIDIA and our partners are committed to supporting our customers, regardless of the cable or power supply used,” an Nvidia spokesman stated.

Perhaps extra importantly, Nvidia additionally informed Gamers Nexus that it and companions would honor RMAs from playing cards broken by improper insertion. “Anybody who has an issue [relating to this] will be taken care of,” the corporate informed Burke. “We’ll expedite an RMA.”

Brad Chacos/IDG

So what number of GeForce RTX 4090 playing cards suffered from melting connectors? Gamers Nexus reviews that board companions have informed it 125,000 GeForce RTX 4090 playing cards have been offered, which might put the identified failure charge at 0.04 %, Burke stated.

The assertion comes a day after a GeForce RTX 4090 proprietor apparently filed a class-action swimsuit towards Nvidia over the melting connectors, in line with a report in Tom’s Hardware. 

Lucas Genova filed his swimsuit on Nov. 11 and alleges that Nvidia “marketed and sold the RTX 4090 with a defective and dangerous power cable plug and socket, which has rendered consumers’ cards inoperable and poses a serious electrical and fire hazard for each and every purchaser.”