NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Owner Shares Photos of Melted 16-Pin Power Adapter

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Image: reggie_gakil

A redditor has shared what is believed to be the first report of a GeForce RTX 4090 12VHPWR 4x 8-pin to 16-pin adapter melting, stirring fears of the power connector being a potential fire hazard. While many have pointed out that this could simply be user error, the photos shared would imply that things did get a little too hot, with some obvious damage on the adapter, as well as around the first row of main pins on the power connector. The user claims that his GeForce RTX 4090 only had a 400-watt load during a Red Dead Redemption 2 session when the cable melted.

Image: reggie_gakil

As spotted by Tom’s Hardware:

The Redditor asserts he was simply playing Red Dead Redemption 2, with a relatively modest GPU load of 400W, when the cable melted, which appears to rule out extreme overclocking. Assuming that’s true, we still have several potential points of failure.

All power connectors need to be seated properly and fully engaged to ensure trouble-free conductivity. This is a particularly crucial concern with higher power components where a poor connection might cause overheating or even electric arcing, with disastrous consequences. Reggie_gakil’s images show signs that there was a connection issue present, causing the connector and socket to melt.

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Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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