PCI Standards Group Rejected and Blamed for Melting GPU Power Connectors

The new Nvidia RTX 4090 and 4080 GPUs use a new connector called 12VHPWR for power delivery to cater for increasingly power hungry graphics cards without having to allocate the physical space needed for three or four 8-pin power connectors. But this power connector and its specifications were not created by Nvidia alone – to ensure compatibility, the specification was developed in conjunction with the PCI Express Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), which includes Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Arm, IBM., Qualcomm and others.

But the overheating and melting issues that some RTX 4090 owners have recently experienced seem to have prompted PCI-SIG to clarify exactly which parts of the spec it’s responsible for and which it’s not. In a statement released by Tom’s Hardware, the group reminded its members that they, and not PCI-SIG, are responsible for testing products using connector specifications such as 12VHPWR.

“Members are reminded that the PCI-SIG specifications provide necessary technical information for interoperability and do not attempt to address issues of proper design, manufacturing methods, materials, safety testing, safety tolerances, or workmanship,”the statement said. “When implementing the PCI-SIG specification, participants are responsible for the design, manufacture and testing, including security testing, of their products.”

In other words: PCI-SIG tells companies how to make their 12VHPWR products work with other companies’ 12VHPWR products, but they are not involved in the production or security testing of any particular 12VHPWR product. This statement appears to absolve PCI-SIG of any blame for the melting power connector saga in light of the lawsuit filed against Nvidia over the issue.

Testing by third parties and Nvidia has shown that overheating of the RTX 4090 GPU power connectors is mostly due to user error rather than a fundamental design issue – in most cases, overheating and melting of the connectors indicated that they were not fully inserted into the GPUs. ‘ 12VHPWR connector. This issue seems to affect all 12VHPWR cables, whether you’re using an adapter for 8-pin PCIe power cables or a custom 12VHPWR cable that plugs directly into your PSU, but it’s also relatively rare.

However, manufacturers could build in more fail-safe devices to detect misconnection or make it more obvious when a cable is fully inserted and when not – a larger connector with louder, more visible locking clips helped with 6- and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. avoided such problems for years. Hopefully we’ll see improvements to help prevent this kind of user error, whether it comes from manufacturers or changes to the PCI-SIG specification. The 12VHPWR connector is likely to remain, thanks to its inclusion in the Intel ATX 3.0 specification for PC power supplies.