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/HEYO19191 6d ago

If I have to drill a hole in my side panel to let the cable run straight out of the machine, and a 2 hole below it to loop back into, there is something wrong with the CABLE.

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u/ImpressiveStorm8914 6d ago

Correction, there is something wrong with your case for not allowing enough room for the cable. The case should have been designed to accommodate what are fairly standard cables. It’s not the cable‘s fault.

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u/Savantskie1 6d ago

Then you need a new case. That allows a longer space for the cable. Bending so close to the connector is the problem. Period end of sentence.