Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 Cable Melting Lawsuit Filed • The Register

In a lawsuit seeking class-action status, Nvidia has been accused of misleading consumers about the safety of the company’s GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards amid mounting reports of melting cables.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 11 by Lucas Genova in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks to charge Nvidia with unjust enrichment, fraud, breaching the implied warranty and violating two New York statutes in the sale of Nvidia faulty RTX 4090 cards.

Nvidia has until December to respond to Genova’s claims, according to a subpoena issued Wednesday. A company spokesman said The registry that it does not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit cites multiple reports that suggest the RTX 4090’s 12V HPWR power connector, or the card’s power outlet, is melting after use. A running Reddit post has identified 26 confirmed reports of RTX 4090 cards with melting cables, and they’ve appeared in Nvidia’s Founders Edition board, as well as third-party cards like Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI.

Nvidia launched the RTX 4090 in October with a suggested retail price of $1,499. Due to the 450 watts required for normal power consumption and 600 watts for overclocking, the GPU giant introduced the new 12VHPWR power connector, short for 12 volt high performance, to maintain a reasonable level of energy. Twelve of the cable’s pins provide power to the card, while four other “sense” pins monitor the card’s wattage.

The lawsuit states Genova noticed that the 12VHPWR power connector had melted shortly after installation where it plugged into the RTX 4090. The user was not previously aware of the shortcomings, and would not have bought the card — or paid much less for the card — if they had known this was a problem, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit calls this meltdown a “serious electrical and fire hazard.” “As such, the cards are not safe for anyone in their current configuration,” it said.

The lawsuit alleges that users who reported the melting cable issue installed the RTX 4090 properly and that the issue stems from a design flaw related to how the wattage flows through the 12VHPWR’s 16 pins:

Among other things, Nvidia “unfairly enriched itself” by taking money from consumers for graphics cards without disclosing that they had defective power cables, according to the lawsuit. This also violates the warranty implied in the sale of RTX 4090 cards and constitutes fraud, the lawsuit continues.

Lawyers representing Genoa are seeking class action status for the lawsuit, which would allow anyone who bought an RTX 4090 card to seek damages. This excludes those who bought an RTX 4090 for resale purposes.

The lawsuit also aims to create a subclass of New York residents who bought the card because it alleges violations of two state statutes related to deceptive business practices.

If class action status is granted, the group’s members would number in the thousands, according to the lawsuit, although the exact number is currently unknown.

The New York law firm Bursor and Fisher, representing the plaintiff, is seeking a jury trial and is seeking compensatory, statutory and punitive damages and prejudgment interest on all awards and restitution.

Nvidia’s main GPU rival AMD apparently couldn’t resist, irking the GeForce designer over the melting cable issue. On Thursday, Sasa Marinkovic, senior director of gaming marketing at AMD, said, tweeted“Stay safe this holiday season,” adding an image of the dual 8-pin connector design of AMD’s new Radeon RX 7900 products, which are standard on high-end cards.

Stay safe this holiday season. @amdradeon pic.twitter.com/DOpg0f2qaP

— Sasa Marinkovic (@SasaMarinkovic) November 17, 2022

AMD better be careful about throwing rocks at silicon houses, considering electric vehicle maker Tesla had to recall nearly 130,000 of its cars earlier this year due to overheating Ryzen processors used in its infotainment system. ®