Seems like the 4090 has its power connector melting.
Look over to reddit.
The PR disaster is already rolling.
Sounds like a case of cheap power connectors. (I’ve been there on the University-wide level.)
And I’m going to extra careful when I install mine. It’s still in the box…
wow, i just read the reedit thread (it’s very very long) and an article. they suggest to have a 3.0 Atx powersupply as it has no issue with cables.
be careful. is the fault are the cable connectors (4x8 on Atx 2.0 PSU) or the ones on the card ?
afterburner Msi software can reduce consomption of the card until better information on this…
The one at the card.
The adapter in combination with the connector can create such a high resistance (electrical) at the contact points when bending in the connector that the adapter and connector melt.
The adapter must not be bent for the first 3.5 cm, which is quite difficult with the many cables hanging from it and the fact that the card is so wide.
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In the two tower cases I’m using space is a problem.
I have too much space
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The way I see it, they could have worked around the problem if the adapter had two clamps, then it couldn’t slip, but would be harder to get loose.
The clamp is on the opposite side of the 12V rails. On the clamp side is the grounding. The 12V side has the most space to move.
One of the redditors has operated the card upright, his cable was barely bent, but that was probably enough to burn it.
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Thomas,
As I mentioned earlier, I have me new Gigabyte Geforce RTX (Gaming OC) 4090, but it is still sitting the carton.- I’m waiting for a good timeframe to take everything down and swap out the RTX 3090 Vision OC in that system presently.
Since most of the complaints about melting adapters seem to indicate problems caused by bending the wires too close to the connectors, I decided to check on what Gigabyte furnished with their card.
It appears to be a four 8-pin connectors wired separately to a small 12-pin mini connector to fit the video card. Each leg is about 4" long and black fabric covered… There should be no problem bending these cables in a place where it won’t break conductors or cause overheating and shorts. - Actually, I’m a bit surprised that they needed to resort to this kind of hook-up arrangement at all. - I’m fairly sure that in the near future there will be several 3rd party cables available that will make all of this problem go away.
One problem that I foresee after doing this install is finding an adequate UPS power back-up suitable for a 1000W PSU. Most of the competitively proced UPS units are rated at 1500KVA, which supports roughly a load of 850-900 watts. Nearly all the popular manufacturers’ prices rise steeply when the power requirement goes beyond 900 watts… - I’m also looking into the idea of using multiple PSUs. - One to drive the computer and video card and an additional one that will power the pumps and fan motors. - Looks like I may need to do some homework before I start my mods.
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JayZ did try hard to melt the connector but wasnt able to.
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Good Link! He was showing the same “original” cable that came with my Gigabyte RTX 4090. And I’m gonna buy one of those CableMods cables. They’re way better.
In the video, it clearly show that JTC didn’t understand the principle why the connector melt. He kept bending the cable on the table, however bent cables are not the reason why the connector melt.
Poor connection between the connector are the main reason. Small contact area within the connector increase resistant hence generate heat & melt the plastic. To generate the situation, you need to put stress on the connector, but he didn’t test that during the video, that is why nothing happen.
CableMod advice not to bend the connector.
https://cablemod.com/12vhpwr/
It seem that JTC view those images in Twitter or read the title only without reading or understanding the whole text. In the guide, it clearly stated that “terminals coming loose or misaligning → may lead to uneven load across the wires → risk of overheating damage”.
Bending the cable while the connector is plugged in the graphic card cause the “terminals coming loose or misaligning” are the key. If you bend the cable on table by hand first, then plug in the graphic card nicely, it won’t cause any problem. That is why he fail to generate the situation.
Anyway I know JTC is a Youtuber not Engineer, most people watch his video for fun not for science. If he melt the connector in front of camera, Nvidia probably won’t send them review samples anymore. LOL
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I like to keep my cables harnessed logically together and fastened to put the wiring most likely to need changing due to component replacements, upgrades, etc., as close to the top of the bundle as possible to allow easy changeout.
The CableMod cable shown in the video link is very attractive, and probably good for those who want their systems to look really impressive through the glass side panels.
Since I try to keep my cable bundles out of sight, this isn’t necessary, but having adequate power to get up to the video card is an important consideration.
I found two cables on Amazon that run power from 3 PCI power sockets (Corsair) to the single connector on the RTX 4090. It is not as snazzy as the CableMod version but looks to be very well-engineered and uses stranded copper of an appropriate grade. It should not overheat. (See image below) It costs in the vicinity of $20.00 US.
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I am running a 4090 with a 5950 and 64GB RAM and u don’t need a 1000W power supply. 850W is just fine, especially for Topaz (and not some GPU benchmarking).
The 4090 is about 50% more power efficient than last generation. It’s also only about 10% faster than a 3090 in Topaz though (at least Artemis or Proteus). I am running the 4090 slightly undervolted @ 2600Mhz and with 3 x 1080p Artemis tasks simultaneously, it consumes about 250W. Plus 150W for the 5950 (fixed voltage + frequency), that’s 400W for GPU + CPU.
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I believe you can make do with an 850W PSU, but to do any OC you will need to go to 1000 watts. (I bought the OC version.)
I’m also certain that VEAI’s throughput and stability on both RTX 30x0 and 40x0 series video cards. It has become obvious that this is now a necessity.
By default, most 4090s have a 450W power limit. OC versions only have slightly increased clock speeds with the same poewr limit. If you want to have additional OC headroom u can increase the power limit up to 600W (depending on GPU model) with MSI Afterburner.
Even when raising the voltage to 1.1v, I couldn’t really reach 600W usage of my 4090 TUF during OC benchmarking. Highest was maybe 560W. And all that was 3D-Mark stable with my 5950 and an 850W Seasonic platinum power supply.
Ofc, it’s better to have a (quality) power supply with higher wattage, for the peace of mind 
. In practice, it’s often not needed.
The sweet spot for efficiency with the 4090 is around 300W imho with some undervolting. For maybe 10% more performance u need almost 100W more.
I tend to agree about the speed and the wattage. I buy the OC version so I can make small adjustments and don’t know if I will need the 1000w PSU, OR the 2000VA UPS i’ll need to support that!
found this article, for what it worths, unless official statement by Nvidia
Update on Cables.
So, you’re not even watching!
from the last articles, some cards are shipped with connectors which deal with 150v instead of 300.
and these cables have bad solders, 4 instead of two “something”. it’s well explained in the link i gave and the one from Thomas D. if it’s that, Nvidia will have to replace the 150v cables.
That is actually interesting, but puzzling as well. The local or “house current” voltage and number of cycles per second does vary from country to country and on various continents.
Examble :
US/Canada 120v 60 cycle
Europe/UK 208v 50 cycle
However, As far as computers are concerned, these differences stop at the AC interface side of the (ATX-family) PSU. Once the incoming line voltage has been rectified and the DC regulated down to the various standard DC voltages used inside the computer, they are almost universally the same.
If there is a manufacturer’s connection problem it would most likely be due to the likelihood of overheating and shorting out, not the line voltage. One common cause of computer wiring, and connector overheating is using “competitively priced” parts made by manufacturing cables using as little copper as possible. - The fundamental fact is that at any given voltage a heavier gauge cable will carry more current than a thinner one will.
In any case, after looking at some of the fried power connectors that came packed in the boxes the RTX-4090s came in, I’d be unwilling to use one of them. (See note) - My 4090 is still in its anti-static wrapping and won’t get plugged in until my correctly engineered GPU power cable arrives.
Note: I can also imagine the excuses that the video card maker if I had to make a warranty claim because my board was damaged because of their cheap-o cable adapter.
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