US-based software company Nvidia managed to draw the wrath of gamers recently when their latest range of ultra-powerful graphics cards were found faulty, with multiple complaints that the cards are melting power cables.
As stated on their website, Nvidia’s RTX 40 Series graphics cards are “beyond fast for gamers and creators.”
Launched in October 2022, the RTX 40 is the most powerful series of graphics card released by the company: it draws 450W of power which is more than half the power supply of a typical coffee maker!
It’s probably a bit too “fast” for the adapter that comes with it, because numerous gamers who have used the card went online to post pictures of the melted adapter.
The adapter has 12 pins in two rows of six.
One of the pictures posted showed several of the pins malformed.
“I really need the graphics card for my work,” a gamer based in Sweden told BBC. “I cannot do any work without it.
“After the damage, I made a Reddit post, out of frustration – and later, Nvidia contacted me personally. The only thing they did was ask me to [return the card].
“Nvidia should make a public announcement about this issue.”
What’s more, a connector on a Founders Edition RTX 4090 was found to melt by another fellow Redditor Party_Quail_1048 whose screen went pitch black while playing Call of Duty: Warzone 10 days after use.
The company quickly replaced the card but did not make a public statement.
User Error Likely Reason
Today, a YouTube channel Gamers Nexus launched a thorough testing on the cables to find more about the burning and melting occurrences of the cables.
“The failure rate of the cables is between 0.05-0.1 percent right now,” said the channel’s editor-in-chief Steve Burke, after gathering information from viewers and speaking to cable suppliers.
One of the reasons of failure, Burke noted, is user error.
Gabriele Gorla, Director of Engineering at Nvidia, told Igor’s Lab that Nvidia buys its four 8-pins to one 12-pin power adapters from two companies: Astron and NTK.
For the RTX 4090, Astron is the official supplier.
Astron argued that its adapter performs as per the required specifications, i.e., resistance below 1.5 ohm.
“Failure, in general, is overwhelmingly uncommon based on the statistics,” Burke said.
Another plausible reason which could cause the cables to fail is improper manufacturing which adds to foreign object debris in the cable.
“Of course, Nvidia may provide more context to that later.”
Electrical Safety First product-safety engineer Giuseppe Capanna said: “Issues surrounding melted plastic are indicative of a build-up of heat that should otherwise not be occurring to this level.
“The root cause should certainly be investigated by any manufacturer with haste.”
“We continue to investigate the reports – however, we don’t have further details to share yet,” Nvidia told BBC in an interview.
