PCI-SIG, the designer of the RTX 4090’s infamously melt-prone 12VHPWR power connector is getting redesigned, but that might not solve the whole problem.
The saga of the RTX 4090‘s melting power adapters is not over yet. The 12VHPWR connector’s designer, PCI-SIG, has shown signs of being updated. These slight revisions will now feature an additional gripping feature. This is in addition to more shrouding near the four sense pins on the 12VHPWR connector.
But, it’s likely that this will not resolve the melting woes that we’ve seen of the melting connectors. Corsair’s own PSU expert, Jon Gerow has speculated that the issues could lie in the connection itself. On his website, Gerow explores how these connectors can fail.
He showcases a connector, which he broke entirely, and still managed to get it to not fail. Gerow then goes further to speculate that improper connection of the port itself to both the GPU and PSU. He also goes further to state that any 12VHPWR connector can burn up.
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Any 12VHPWR cable can melt
The reason for this is that it’s difficult to actually seat the connector correctly at both ends. He further states that the reason that we have seen the included Nvidia adapters the most is that it has the largest sample size. ATX 3.0 PSUs are still relatively difficult to come by, so we’ve only seen a couple of them failing.
Due to the difficulty of connecting it properly, any users of the RTX 4090 might want to ensure that their cables are seated correctly. The 12VHPWR connector is only rated for 30 cycles, but this is the same as the older 8-pin PCIe connector, too. Regardless, these growing pains might be cause for concern to some.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has stayed pretty silent on all official lines of communication, despite Jensen Huang’s visit to Taiwan.
