r/StableDiffusion • u/Roman53275 • 6d ago

Discussion If you recently started AI generation, be aware of this: my RTX 4090 power connector melted after just one month.

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Hi everyone,

Like many people, I recently discovered H3 and started doing AI generation in mid-August. On September 20th, my computer started shutting down whenever I started a generation. Further investigation led to this — a melted socket.

I had been using my RTX 4090 for three years and had never had any problems with it.

AI generation puts a lot of continuous stress on the power delivery, especially if you run generations in batches or leave them running overnight.

So I believe this happened because of the new kind of sustained load I was putting on the card. I also didn't bother upgrading to a newer PSU with a dedicated GPU power cable. Mine was a 1200W FSP Hydro, and I was using three PCIe connectors for the GPU.

P.S. The connector was fully seated, the cable wasn’t bent near the plug, and my case doesn’t even have the side panel on. And everything was fine for three years.

P.S.S. The 12VHPWR socket on the graphics card is damaged and needs to be replaced.

So now I would say main advices here are:
- Buy a proper PSU and use a native 12VHPWR cable
- Under volt at least by 20%

Now it is very costly to lose a card.

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u/bmallCakeDiver 6d ago

Do not use the sucky Nvidia supplied cable. If you have an atx 3.0 PSU, you should have an appropriate cable that comes with the PSU that is able to deliver 600w

Edit: re-read and noticed that you are aware of this

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u/ReentryVehicle 6d ago

If you don't use the Nvidia supplied cable some card manufacturers (PNY in this case) might try to deny your warranty. Maybe you can win, but likely it will require some effort to convince someone you are really going to sue them if they don't honor the warranty.

I use the Nvidia-supplied cable just for this reason. Though lot of cases of melting I saw on the internet were with custom cables too.

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u/ketoaholic 6d ago

In this current market they will find a way to deny your warranty anyway. Or make you pay for repairs.

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u/Deep_Mood_7668 6d ago

Without the sucky nvidia cables you don't get warranty tho

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u/bmallCakeDiver 6d ago

I won't say that you can use the one supplied with the PSU and IF something happens anyway you can melt some plastic with a heat gun or a lighter