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A NorthbridgeFix repair technician estimated that the shop was receiving about 80 to 100 RTX 4090 cards with melted power connectors each month. That figure, reported by HotHardware on June 11, 2024, describes one technician’s estimate of one shop’s workload—not an audited count or an industry-wide failure rate.
What did the repair shop claim?
HotHardware quoted Alex, identified as a NorthbridgeFix repair technician, saying the shop was still receiving about 20 RTX 4090 cards a week with melted connectors. Alex also put the monthly volume at 80 to 100 cards and said the first RTX 4090 he worked on arrived in January 2023. HotHardware reported the estimate on June 11, 2024.
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VIPERA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Graphic Card | $4,425.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX™ 5080 16GB GDDR7 OC Edition Graphics Card | $1,830.91 | Buy on Amazon |
The numbers are attributed to Alex and reflect his account of the shop’s incoming work. The report does not provide an independently audited tally, a fuller name or job title, or a denominator showing how many RTX 4090 cards were in use. It therefore cannot establish the probability that an individual card will suffer connector damage or how common the problem is across all RTX 4090 owners.
What kind of damage did the report describe?
The claim concerned melted or burned GPU power connectors. It does not identify the cause of each case or establish that all of the cards involved had the same configuration or accessory. In particular, the report does not say that all the damaged cards used CableMod angled adapters.
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How does the CableMod recall relate?
A separate U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall covered CableMod 12VHPWR angled adapters, models V1.0 and V1.1, in 90-degree and 180-degree versions. The CPSC said consumers should stop using the recalled adapters and contact CableMod for instructions on safe removal and the recall remedy. The CPSC recall notice reported about 25,300 adapters recalled, 272 reports of adapters loosening, overheating, and melting into GPUs, at least $74,500 in U.S. property-damage claims, and no reported injuries.
Those figures concern reports and claims involving the specific recalled CableMod products. They are not a count of RTX 4090 connector failures generally, and they should not be added to or treated as confirmation of NorthbridgeFix’s estimate.
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What does NVIDIA say about connecting an RTX 4090?
NVIDIA’s RTX 4090 quick-start guide instructs users to connect the 16-pin plug of the NVIDIA power connector adapter to the power receptacle on top of the graphics card. That is the guide’s setup instruction; it is not a guarantee that connector problems cannot occur.
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Does this show that RTX 4090 connectors are still melting?
It shows that a technician reported regular incoming cases at one shop in a report published in June 2024. The available figures do not establish NorthbridgeFix’s current workload, the present-day frequency of connector damage, or an industry-wide failure rate. The recall notice documents a distinct hazard involving specified CableMod adapters, not every reported RTX 4090 connector issue.
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