NVIDIA 16-Pin Adapter Comes In Two Flavors, 300V Is Good For GeForce RTX 4090 But 150

[harlan4096]

Ever since we reported the first case of an NVIDIA 16-pin connector melting on the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, there have been various discoveries. Now several days after the issues were first reported, it looks like GamersNexus and Igor's Lab have finally got to the bottom of the issue.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's Adapter Is To Blame, But Not All of Them! 300V 14AWG Cable Runs Perfectly Well, 150V Leads To Melting

While NVIDIA and its AIB partners are working to resolve the 16-pin connector issues, the PC tech community is hard at work to find out the real cause of the issue. In the previous report, we got to know that it was definitely the adapter that was responsible for the melting and not the card or the plug on the card itself. The 16-pin connector got really hot when proper contact was not made or if the cable was bent too much. This led to an excessive amount of current passing through the cable which further led to higher temperatures and the resultant melting occurred.

Steve Burke at GamersNexus has now discovered that while the cables themselves are the issue, it is not all cables that can lead to the burning or melting of the card. The tech outlet spotted that all of their cables were labeled as "300V 14AWG" while the ones that were shown by Igor's were rated at 150V. That's a vast difference. But not just that, there was also a difference in the solder between the two cables.

NVIDIA 16-Pin 300V Adapter Cable (Known Good Cable):
 

Since both outlets ripped the connector off, it was found out that the 300V cables use high-quality soldering whereas, on the 150V, each cable line is soldered individually & with a smaller soldering surface that can lead to damage while bending. This must explain why the cable in Igor's case came out loose. The cable used by Steve (GamersNexus) and Ronaldo (TecLab) was able to resist torture through various endurance and durability tests. Both GamersNexus and TecLab also ran the cable for hours under load.
...

Continue Reading