Nvidia appears to deliver GeForce RTX 4090 FE with improved 12Vhpwr connection

Nvidia now appears to be delivering its GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition with an improved 12Vhpwr connection for power supply. This has shorter sense pins, which should reduce the chance that a cable is not fully connected.

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition with the new power connection has been noted on Reddit, also writes TechPowerUp. A user posted photos of his new video card, showing the custom connector. Reliable source Igor’s Lab previously reported that Nvidia has implemented such a change in its GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition and its subsequent GPUs. The company now also appears to be implementing this in its RTX 4090, which was released earlier.

This is a relatively minor adjustment, in which the four small sense pins of the 12Vhpwr connection have been shortened. A video card can communicate with the power supply via these sense pins and request higher powers. If these pins are not properly connected, the video card may not function fully. Shortening these pins should therefore prevent high powers from passing through a cable when it is not fully connected. In this way, problems with melting cables are prevented.

A previously shown comparison of an RTX 4070 FE with a new 12Vhpwr connection next to the 12Vhpwr of the RTX 4080 FE.
Source: Igor’s Lab