Another 16-pin RTX 4090 power adapter has melted, but from the PSU side this time

[DSirius]

This article is one of the best about this melting-burning Nvidia issue.

Let's talk about the 12VHPWR connector....

I can conclude something like this.
The 16 pin power connector can be good, and in theory should have been great. In practice not at all, not so much. Too much restricted conditions, more power on a smaller area, which raise the heat to burning temperatures. Even with the best materials, it is quite hard to achieve the safety parameters. And definitely not worth the cost.
Clearly Nvidia 16 pin-12PHWR power connector is less safe than 8 pin power connector.
Blaming manufacturers is not covering the fact that Nvidia design is flawed because it is less safe from the start. Make a good design which the industry can manufacture after. It seems that this is the hard lesson to learn for Nvidia. They wanted to be the 1st, pushing the industry standards, and well, they did it, just that not in the right and the safe direction.
Now Nvidia 4090 managed to be the 1st, hope the only one, with 16 pin power melting and burning connectors. And Nvidia should have the spine to own its failures at least as they own their success, but this scandal shows that they are not capable of this. Instead they sent their army of PR, paid reviewers, youtubers flexus "specialists" and fanboys to deny, twist and spin the facts.
And this may be "funny" to watch from outside, but definitely it is a disaster for the owners of Nvidia 4090 videocards which literally melted and burned, putting in danger even their house, or worse, their lives.

 

[takaozo]

@DSirius
Good article thanks for sharing.

 

[DSirius]

@DSirius
Good article thanks for sharing.

Indeed, and worth to check his entire website, has many, other great articles.

Jon Gerow's personal website

Check his auto-bio from his website. For the connoisseurs he is Johnny Guru.
I bought my 1000 W Seasonic Prime Titanium following his recommendations.
BTW, I noticed and also wondered why Seasonic did not rushed to jump so quickly in this wagon of ATX 3.0 power supply. After more research, and Nvidia 16pin power burning drama, we can better understand why. Seasonic were smarter because they knew more and decided that it is not the proper time and that the Nvidia 16pin power connector design is not safe.

P.S. Johhny Guru is what I recognize as a specialist. I can also add NorthridgeFix guy too.
NorthridgeFix is an Electronics repair shop specialized in Computer, Phone and Tablet repair on a motherboard level. It is owned by a genuine guy, who also shows and teaches others how to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/@NorthridgeFix

There is a massive professionally difference between them, and some inflated Flexus youtubers and gamers "specialists" which chose to do lame PR damage report for Nvidia.

 

[DukeJukem]

Deserved. Only a mor0n could buy a 450W GPU. Maximum should be 350W. Nvidia is fully responsible for this dangerous mess.

are you like the overseer of wattage or something?

 

[DukeJukem]

Funny thing is the 7900 xtx can easily pull more wattage than a 4090 yet we aren't seeing any reports of amd cards frying connectors now are we? nvidia just needs to admit this is a design flaw, either with the card itself or the new connectors. regardless the problem simply exists because of nvidia. its only happening to nvidia and these new standards are being enforced by nvidia. its nvidia.

would I buy a 4090> a 7900 xtx? yea I'd take the risk. more frames, less power draw usually, frame generation, shadowplay is superior with in game color filters by far> amd, youtube etc video upscaling, my drivers will always work unless the card or something else in my system is literally broken, nvidia doesnt abandon old cards like my 5700 xt im currently rocking that never received the patch the 6000 series cards did that fixed DX11 performance. yea I'd take the risk and spend more for something that truly is more valuable.

 

[STbob]

Its too much current for a modular power supply. Its best to hard wire them. Its one more fail point and if the connection is off a little bit that amount of current heats up thin wires like a toaster.

Think of it this way. would you rater have one long 25 foot extension cable or five 5 foot sections each plugged at 5 places. Poor connections increase resistance and you get arcing. Just poor engineering and a hazard. This was predictable if they had tested more.

 

[takaozo]

Indeed, and worth to check his entire website, has many, other great articles.

Jon Gerow's personal website

Check his auto-bio from his website. For the connoisseurs he is Johnny Guru.
I bought my 1000 W Seasonic Prime Titanium following his recommendations.
BTW, I noticed and also wondered why Seasonic did not rushed to jump so quickly in this vagon of ATX 3.0 power supply. After more research, and Nvidia 16pin power burning drama, we can better understand why. Seasonic were smarter because they knew more and decided that it is not the proper time and that the Nvidia 16pin power connector design is not safe.

P.S. Johhny Guru is what I recognize as a specialist. I can also add NorthridgeFix guy too.
NorthridgeFix is an Electronics repair shop specialized in Computer, Phone and Tablet repair on a motherboard level. It is owned by a genuine guy, who also shows and teaches others how to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/@NorthridgeFix

There is a massive professionally difference between them, and some inflated Flexus youtubers and gamers "specialists" which chose to do lame PR damage report for Nvidia.

Beside J Guru there is also crmaris from TPU or https://www.tomshardware.com/author/aris-mpitziopoulos or https://hwbusters.com/. Same person.

J Guru lost some of his independent reputation when he got to Corsair, can't trust him 100% now behind a big tech. But still a tech guy, one of the best maybe.

 

[Geralt]

are you like the overseer of wattage or something?

No. But you can't cheat physics. The bigger the power consumption the more heat will be generated. Nvidia crossed the line and now all mor0ns buying that 4090 furnace are in danger of having their houses burnt up.

 

[hwertz]

Root problem here really is the PCI SIG connector not really being up to the requirements.

The requirements for power cords and connectors (that carry high amounts of power) OUTSIDE the computer were developed by engineers and safety experts aware of the requirements of high-power-draw, they specify required wire thickness (AWG) and connector type that can carry the amount of power, with a safety margin, so you are relatively unlikely to have melted cords, melted sockets, or electrical fires. (For example, you notice how the 240V power going to a clothes driver has a far thicker cord, and a big chunky connector compared to a regular 120V power cord? Well, this is why.)

PCI SIG did not do this, they have plenty of knowledge dealing with power up to about 75W and just kind of slightly scaled that up... the standards for these power connectors allow thinner wires, and have less contact area (where the connector plugs into the board and PSU) than any of the outside-the-computer plug standards would allow for for that amount of power draw. I mean, at 12V a 600W card would be pulling *50* amps over this connector!

 

[b3rdm4n]

are you like the overseer of wattage or something?

As if some number they choose, totally arbitrarily, is where the imaginary line gets crossed, and anything above that is idiocy and risking a house fire lol, never mind the dirt cheap 1400++w electric heaters millions of people use all the time, yeah 450w means.... you guessed it, bupkiss, provided you can plug it in properly. The Nvidia hater crowd sure love to talk about housefires that haven't happened, and even more amusing than that, imagine if AMD did it, and how excusable virtually anything becomes when they do.