Even Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card appears to be susceptible to the ongoing 16-pin power adapter meltdown.First reported case of Founders Edition surfaced reddit (opens in new tab) over the weekend.
The owner of the affected GeForce RTX 4090 said in a Reddit thread that he purchased the GeForce RTX 4090 from Best Buy on October 19th, so Ada’s flagship fell victim to the meltdown in its first year of life. Less than a month ago, users put their graphics cards inside the Asus ROG Helios case without the side panel to avoid bending the 16-pin adapter (which has been blamed for other RTX 4090 meltdowns). I stowed away. A Redditor confirmed that from an Asus ROG Thor 1200W power supply he connected three 8-pin PCIe power cables.
User has played for the next 7 days Call of Duty: Warzone, It was about 2-3 hours a day, but on October 29th the screen went black. Unfortunately, by the time they took the system apart, it was already too late. The damage had already happened, melting the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition 16-pin power adapter and 16-pin power connector. The Redditor sent the damaged graphics card and adapter back to Nvidia for analysis. Unfortunately, the chip maker has been reluctant to install the graphics card, although he sent Redditor a replacement three days later.
according to Reddit thread (opens in new tab), 4 more to reach the Magic 30 number. Until this weekend, we’ve only had user feedback on custom models of the GeForce RTX 4090, but even the Founders Edition doesn’t seem safe. Nvidia’s investigation continues as new reports pile up. In a brief statement, the semiconductor maker said it was still investigating the report and had no new details.
The only new development so far is Nvidia’s confirmation to German publication Igor’s Lab that the company has purchased 16-pin power adapters from two manufacturers, Astron and NTK. Both adapters comply with PCI-SIG specifications. However, Zotac and Gigabyte allegedly told his Igor lab that the NTK adapter was less susceptible to failure after several connections. The key word here is “less”. In other words, there is still an inherent probability of failure.
There are many theories about the failure of 16-pin power adapters, ranging from adapter design to user error. Sadly, all GeForce RTX 4090 owners can do is wait until Nvidia finishes its investigation. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, so let’s hope Nvidia can end his GeForce RTX 4090 casualties sooner or later.
