The solution to the ongoing tragedy of Nvidia's RTX 4090 (opens in new tab) 16-pin power adapter has taken a step in the right direction with a detailed analysis by Igor's Lab. The German tech site identified two different manufacturers (opens in new tab) of the infamous 12VHPWR connector, found that one was significantly more prone to overheating problems (opens in new tab), and deemed it a "complete disaster."

The manufacturers in question are NTK and Astron, with the latter connector being the more problematic of the two; Igor believes that some lots of Astron connectors suffer from substandard soldering quality, due in part to insufficient strain relief. The inconsistency between the schematics and soldering of Astron connectors obtained by Igor's laboratory suggests that this is not due to design, but to manufacturing errors. This helps explain the randomness of the failure. Manufacturing errors may be due to a single worker, and therefore not applicable to all connectors manufactured by Astron.

Igor also identified a fundamental design difference between NTK and Astron connectors: the NTK design is more secure in installation and easier to remove. This issue is important given that imperfect installation also contributes to connector melting.

The internal spring contacts also differ between the two vendors, with Astron using contacts with two slots, while NTK has only one and a different shape. As a result, Astron connectors tend to have greater electrical resistance, especially after repeated insertion; Igor similarly found that the quality of the injection molding of Astron connectors was poor, with various additional problems.

However, this is clearly a complex multi-factor problem, as NTK connectors have also been shown to melt. Indeed, Igor does not place all the blame on Astron and its substandard products; Igor also helpfully provides a list of solutions to at least some of the identified failure points.

All of this also highlights how reliable the hardware is: PC components are incredibly complex, and the smallest error can break the whole thing. Of course, having just spent $2,000/£2,000 on the most spectacular graphics card in the history of mankind, it would be of little consolation to find it melted inside your PC.