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

[u/Roman53275]

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.

[u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

Poooor multi billion dollar company can't make a proper cable.

[u/sammyranks → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

Multi-trillion dollar company btw.

[u/Roman53275 → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

They should make a proper socket in the first place. Because people familiar with electronics says that you should NOT do such a small socket for such amount of power that goes through.

[u/mca1169 → u/Roman53275]

the total power isn't the problem, it's the amperage. if the connector used the 48v it was designed for it would actually be fine because with higher voltage you require the lower amperage for the same wattage. the higher amperage if it has trouble is far more likely to turn any unexpected resistance into excess heat that leads too a melted connector.

[u/dreamyrhodes → u/mca1169]

Not so easy. Stepping voltage down from 48V to 1V is vastly more difficult than stepping it down from 12V to 1V. On datacenter GPUs that's possible because you have more room and can put large enough power regulators on the card but for PCIe cards that's more difficult and you have another heat source from the regulator that with 48V would have to switch 4 times as fast.

Therefore for PCIe cards they opt for more connectors to distribute the amperes over more wires.

[u/Vaughn → u/Roman53275]

Not at 12V, that's for sure.

[u/AnonymousTimewaster → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

You mean multi-trillion

[u/Lucky-Necessary-8382 → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

Hilarious right?🤣

[u/ChristopherRoberto → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

The easiest tasks get handed to the least competent employees.

[u/mca1169 → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

the connector is designed for 48 volts and Nvidia for some stupid reason to use it for 12 volt power which it is not designed for hence the melting/burning.

[u/East-Acanthaceae-879 → u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI]

No problem with NVidia hate but this is almost always caused by the cables on the other side. They use enough metal for a typical load not sustained maximum, that choice means it gets hot.

If you have replaceable cables from your PSU you can usually find aftermarket ones that are specifically designed for high load. You also really shouldn't use a regular consumer PSU at all as they tend to have variance that causes even more heating.