GeForce RTX 4090: Analyzes on adapters detect inadequate welds

Someone has already renamed it “Cable Gate“, but on the theme of cast adaptersto connect the GeForce RTX 4090 to non-ATX 3.0 power supplies there is still a lot of smoke and little roast. Some would sarcastically say “a lot of smoke”. On the other hand, NVIDIA has not yet expressed itself officially, so it is still early to draw conclusions, although it is logical to keep the attention high to get to a clear picture.

The only security that several adapters have merged, in some cases causing problems for a video card as well which, at best, costs around 2000 euros. There must therefore be a problem somewhere and NVIDIA, for this reason, would give mandate to partnersfrom collect all damaged boards and send them directly to headquarters (NVIDIA HQ in the US) for problem analysis.

According to the German website Igor’s Lab, this would be a novelty because it did not even happen when there were problems with Micron memories on the GeForce RTX 2080. And while AMD has stated that it does not intend to adopt the new 16-pin 12VHPWR connector on future RDNA solutions 3, always Igor’s Lab analyzed the connector and made some considerations on the origin of the problem.

As reported in the article the problem it would not be caused by strong bending of the power cord, n by exceeding the recommended cycles of use. The weak link would be the adapter itself, and more precisely contacts and welds far from perfection: bending the cable the welds would jump, leading to the creation of heat peaks. The analysis was done on the adapter provided by NVIDIA, but some third party connectors would also exhibit problemsalbeit of another kind, as single pins detached from the connector.

Furthermore, according to some checks carried out by the OC team of Galaximproper contact between the connector and the adapter could lead to a temperature increase of tens of degrees, with the consequences we have seen.

With the GeForce RTX 4080 arriving on November 16th, NVIDIA has a vested interest in getting clarity on these cases as quickly as possible. The company will probably do a recall and replace the adapters with a better build quality version. In the meantime, those who have had problems will receive from NVIDIA – and God forbid – a new RTX 4090.