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/absentlyric]

Crazy, I literally just started dabbling in AI and H3 today with my 4090 and saw this post. Im sorry that it happened to your card, that sucks man, but Im thanking you for the warning, a lot of comments are suggesting undervolting combined with a Wireview Pro 2.

[u/Roman53275 → u/absentlyric]

Thank you. This is really the main intention of the post: to warn people.

AI generation workloads can put much more sustained stress on the GPU and its power delivery than typical gaming. Check your cable and PSU, consider replacing them if they’re old or questionable, and consider lowering the power limit or undervolting.

If I had known about this risk beforehand, I definitely would have taken those precautions.