NVIDIA Power Cables Are Melting, This May Be Why

NVIDIA has lately introduced their lineup of 40-sequence graphics playing cards, with a novel generation of electricity connectors called 12VHPWR. See, the previous-technology 8-pin connectors were being no lengthier ample to satiate the GPU’s starvation. As soon as cards began having into the fingers of end users, remarkably, we commenced observing photographs of melted 12VHPWR plugs and sockets on the internet — particularly, involving ATX 8-pin GPU power to 12VHPWR adapters that NVIDIA offered with their cards.

Now, [Igor Wallossek] of igor’sLAB proposes a principle about what’s going on, with convincing teardown shots to again it up. After an unscheduled release of plastic-scented magic smoke, one of the NVIDIA-presented connectors was destructively disassembled. Turned out that these connectors weren’t crimped like we’re applied to, but alternatively, the connectors experienced flat metal pads intended for wires to solder on. For energy-carrying connectors, there are very good reasons this is not the norm. That claimed, you can make it get the job done, but prospects are not in favor of this distinct a single.

The steel pads in issue appear to be far way too slim and structurally unsound, as just one can commonly spot, their cross-section is dwarfed by the cross-segment of cables soldered to them. This would make a phase of elevated resistance and warmth reduction, exaggerated by any flexing of the thick and unwieldy cabling. Because of to the steel getting so slender, the anxiety details seem to be really flimsy, as just one of the metallic pads straight up broke off during disassembly of the connector.

If this idea is accurate, the predicament is a blunder to blame on NVIDIA. On the upside, the 12VHPWR conventional alone seems to be feasible, as there are illustrations of PSUs with indigenous 12HPWR connections that really do not show this dilemma. It would seem, gamers with leading-of-the-line GPUs can now empathize with the difficulties that we hackers have been looking at in really cheap 3D printers.