The incredibly powerful flagship Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU melts 16-pin power connectors, crashing at maximum graphics settings in demanding games. An incident was documented on social media where an RTX 4090 power supply melted down, causing both Nvidia and third-party graphics card maker Gigabyte to be mocked online.
This isn’t the first time Nvidia’s powerful new GPU has found itself in an unfortunate situation. Last year, after the release of the 3080 Ti series of cards, gamers started reporting black screens and howling graphics card fans. Initially blamed on Amazon Games’ New World for GPU glitches, the build quality of Gigabyte’s 3080 Ti cards was later found to be the culprit, causing more confusion in the community when Nvidia discontinued its controversial 12GB 4080 GPU. Gamers have expressed concerns about the power requirements and the highly demanding design of the RTX 4090 series cards, and it appears these concerns are justified.
Reddit user reggie_gakil posted a photo of a charred RTX 4090 connector cable, claiming that the card began to smoke while playing Red Dead Redemption 2. As a result, the GPU failed, causing the user’s screen to go dark. He was shocked when he opened his case and found a charred graphics card power cable inside. It was recently reported that the RTX 4090 Ti was canceled due to similar issues, but the RTX 4090 series GPUs were believed to function as expected.
Ironically, behind the melted power connector was a Gigabyte-branded GPU, the same brand that caused the 3080 Ti’s many failures last year.
Gamers have criticized both the size of the card and its power requirements, and most gamers are shocked at the card’s $1,600 price tag. Owners of the new RTX 4090s cheered when it was announced that Cyberpunk 2077 would support the new DLSS 3.0 exclusive to the 40-series cards. Now that joy has been replaced by worry.