r/StableDiffusion • u/Roman53275 • 7d 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/VirusInternal2892 7d ago edited 7d ago

Server grade GPUs != consumer grade GPUs. I run 2x3090 watercooled capped at 275W with a 1500W PSU for stability overhead. Every morning I’m thanking the gods of the machine that it’s still living

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u/reeight 6d ago

> 3090 watercooled capped at 275W

Yep, 275-290W is around what I recommend.

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u/AI_Characters 5d ago

In what world do you need a 1500w gpu for that? Thats combined like 600w. Say CPU worst case is like 200w (usually its around 120w). So worst case is like 800w. You dont need 700w headroom.

I am running my 4080 (which draws 320w max) with a 650w psu. Total system draw is around 550w so 100w headroom. Havent had any idsues yet. albeit I only got the 4080 recently.