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Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

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Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#161

Post by whywhywhywhy »

mastax wrote: post #70
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #32

People are letting their hatred of Nvidia blind them to what happened here, a customer upgraded from a 4090FE to 5090FE, they were using a 3rd party ASUS 12VHPWR cable and didn't realize the 5090FE actually uses 12V-2x6 not 12VHPWR, while the port is the same the pins are different lengths. End of the day PC power cabling is such a shambles with things that look standard but are not so you should only ever really use…

If the new 12V-2x6 connector was incompatible with the old 12VHPWR connector, they should have (and would have) made it physically incompatible. They didn’t. You cannot blame the user for doing something which is specifically allowed by design.

> You cannot blame the user for doing something which is specifically allowed by design.

We really saying this when swapping a PSU to a different PSU and reusing existing cables that all look and plug in the same fries your build.

I think it's utterly absurd that this is the case but that's PC components for you.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#163

Post by mpreda »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #148
mpreda wrote: post #100

Step the GPU voltage up to 48V. (anyway you make a new connector that's not compatible with existing PSUs. Why not actually fix a problem at the same time, once and for all! [48V should be enough for anybody, right?])

> Step the GPU voltage up to 48V. Meh. Might as well ask for its own AC cable and be done with it.

But I want fewer cables, not more.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#164

Post by whywhywhywhy »

Deathmax wrote: post #58
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #32

People are letting their hatred of Nvidia blind them to what happened here, a customer upgraded from a 4090FE to 5090FE, they were using a 3rd party ASUS 12VHPWR cable and didn't realize the 5090FE actually uses 12V-2x6 not 12VHPWR, while the port is the same the pins are different lengths. End of the day PC power cabling is such a shambles with things that look standard but are not so you should only ever really use…

The cables between 12V-2x6 and 12VHPWR are identical, it's the port that has different pin lengths (shorter sensing pin, longer conductor pins) to allow for better detection of poorly seated cables and better conductivity while loose.

Pedantry between "cable" and "connectors" and claiming one if the same doesn't help people understand the situation.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#166

Post by threeducks »

Havoc wrote: post #77

What’s wild is that this is a company clearly capable of designing highly complex things with numerous tradeoffs, challenges and unknowns. And then the fuckin cable is the issue. Repeatedly.

It boggles the mind how a $10 space heater has better overheating protection than this $4000 space heater.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#167

Post by dcrazy »

mminer237 wrote: post #153
dcrazy wrote: post #120

Is NVIDIA breaching any consumer safety laws by pumping twice the rated current through a 24ish gauge wire? Perhaps by violating their UL certification?

UL is a private company. There're no laws requiring it or penalizing violations. I would think the only legal consequences would be through civil product liability/breach of warranty claims. Plus, like, losing the certification would mean most stores would no longer stock it.

Many products sold in the United States must be tested in a CPSC-certified lab for conformity, of which UL is the best known. But consumer electronics don’t seem to be among that set, unless they are roped in somehow (maybe for hazardous substances?).

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#168

Post by nyrikki »

BizarroLand wrote: post #151
michaelt wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, modern GPUs are already absolutely packed with buck converters, to convert 12v down to 2v or so. Look at the PCB of a 4090 GPU; you can find plenty of images of people removing the heatsink to fit water blocks. They literally have 24 separate transistors and inductors, all with thermal pads so they can be cooled by the heatsink. The industry could change to 48v if they wanted to - although with ATX3.0 and the 16…

They could make a new spec for graphics cards and have a 24v/48v rail for them on a new unique connector. I guess the problem is not only designing the cards to run on the higher voltages but also getting AMD and Intel on board because otherwise no manufacturer is going to make the new power supplies.

IIRC the patchwork of laws, standards and regulations across the world for low voltage wiring is what restricted voltage in the 36 V – 52 V range. Some locations treating it as low, some as an intermediate and others treated it as high voltage.

It may be marine market specific, but several manufacturers limit to 36v for even high amperage motors because of it.

Obviously I=V/R will force this in the future though.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#169

Post by Henchman21 »

userbinator wrote: post #56
readingnews wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Connectors are actually extremely difficult to make. While your points listed are valid, we have been making connectors that overcome these points for decades, in some cases approaching the century mark. >> I'm not surprised at all that they are running into issues here, these cards are pulling 500+ watts. That is a LOT of current. Nonsense. I used to work at an industrial power generation company. 500W is _nothin…

One word: cost. Look up how much industrial/automotive connectors cost, and you'll see the huge difference in quality.

Well surely they can take that cost out of the $5090 people are paying for these cards.

Re: Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting

#170

Post by Henchman21 »

ImHereToVote wrote: post #63
mlsu wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Connectors are actually extremely difficult to make. - you have to ensure that the metal connectors take shape and bond to the wire properly. This is done by crimping. Look up how much a good crimping tool costs for a rough approximation of how difficult it can be to get this right. - one plastic bit has to mate with another plastic bit, mechanically. This needs to be easy enough for 99.99% of users to do easily, yet…

"Nobody will pay $3 for a connector" I would pay $10.

This whole conversation seems absurd! Of course you'd pay for the right power connector for your multi-thousand dollar card!

You don't buy a $200k sports car and then take it to Jiffy Lube for oil changes. You pony up for the cost of proper maintenance!

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