GPU repair shop NorthridgeFix has been busy repairing hundreds of broken NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards, with the repair shop reporting it receives RTX 4090s that have been burned from customers across the planet “every single day”.
NorthridgeFix showed off a box filled to the brim with melted 16-pin “12VHPWR” power connectors, with the repair shop noting that a large number of RTX 4090s that it receives for repair are because of the melted CableMod power adapters.
CableMod has officially discontinued and even recalled these cables, but this doesn’t mean some people won’t still use the adapter, with NorthridgeFix saying that the initial design of the power connector was “built on the wrong foundation”.
NVIDIA’s expensive flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards pile up worldwide in the number of flagship GPUs shipped, with hundreds of thousands of them in the wild over the last 18 months. It’s expected that some of these cards will melt at some point, which will keep NorthridgeFix busy for years to come.
2NorthridgeFix holding a box of melted 16-pin power connectors (source: NorthridgeFix)
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This will be the case for users in workstations and AI workload use, where their GeForce RTX 4090 is going 24/7 non-stop. Gamers, on the other hand, with a far lower use of an average of a few hours per day, won’t have melted RTX 4090 problems for many years in some cases, versus workstation/AI use that would bring the card to its knees in a far shorter timespan.
The original RTX 4090 launched with the first-gen 12VHPWR power connector, while the upgraded 12V-2×6 power connector ships on the new RTX 4080 SUPER, RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and RTX 4070 SUPER graphics cards.