By now, you might have been aware of the horror stories regarding Nvidia’s 16-pin power adapter melting on the GeForce RTX 4090. But the terror does not stop there. A GeForce RTX 4090 owner has reported the first case of a 12VHPWR power connector meltdown from a native ATX 3.0 power supply. 

Though it’s a bit costly, the GeForce RTX 4090 is one of the best graphics cards for gaming. The price tag should not be such that it scares the consumers totally but the fact is that the included 16-pin power adapter is a potential fire hazard. There have been 18 “confirmed” cases on Reddit starting from different graphics card vendors. Nvidia has investigated the problem and has advised its partners to send melted GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards back to the chipmaker’s lab for further analysis. 

As per a Facebook post, the owner used an MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio 24G graphics card and MEG Ai1300P power supply. After reading about the feedback with the 16-pin power adapter, the user chose an ATX 3.0 power supply with a native 12VHPWR power connector. But, as per the photographs, the power connector has begun to melt. A couple of the ports looked disfigured. Though no pictures of the system were shared the Facebook user claimed that he did not bend the cable too much. MSI has contacted him to replace the graphics card and power supply. 

Nvidia has not shared the results of the investigation, advising the company may still explore to find the main cause of the problem. Thus, we have seen meltdowns with the 16-pin power adapter. However, this new user report makes us question whether the problem goes deeper than the design of Nvidia’s 16-pin power adapter. Instead, the issue could lie with the 12VHPWR power connector, the quality of the components, the GeForce RTX 4090, or a combination of various factors. When the 12VHPWR power connector debuted on GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards, there were concerns regarding the peril of pushing 600W via a small power connector. The GeForce RTX 4090 is a 450W graphics card, but once you start overclocking, running benchmarks, or torturing tests like FurMark, the power consumption will rapidly go over the 500W to 550W mark easily. 

Initially, the 16-pin power adapter was the scapegoat for the fiasco. It would seem that a third-party adapter or a direct link to the power supply could mitigate the meltdown. The solution might not be easy. ATX 3.0 power supplies are very rare to find these days, which itself shows why there has been no report of a native 12VHPWR power connector melting.  

GeForce RTX 4090 owners are in a tricky spot presently, as neither the power adapter nor the power connector seems safe. Unfortunately, Nvidia has been silent since the start of the 16-pin power adapter meltdown disaster, which does not help at all.