News PC hardware repairer calls out rash of RTX 4090 failures made worse by poor packaging from customers

[Admin]

Too many flagship graphics cards are suffering unnecessary irreparable damage, reckons NorthWestRepair. The graphics card repair specialist has published a new video where he bemoans a rash of Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 failures due to poor shipping and improper mounting practices.

PC hardware repairer calls out rash of RTX 4090 failures made worse by poor packaging from customers : Read more

 

[MacZ24]

These graphics cards are becoming so huge and heavy that soon you will be pluging your motherboard on your graphics card.

This seems like a leitmotiv : maximum powa at all cost. Even when it ends up damaging the hardware itself...

 

[zorgan.roman]

It's sad to look at NVIDIA's policies and practices, how they treat the competition. And what's even sadder is that such a good GPU silicon is invalidated by NVIDIA's terrifying design of the 4090 RTX, including a pointless power connector. Again, the evidence shows that these cards have another weakness. For NVIDIA's management, the end user has become a cash cow to their billions in profits, which they are now pushing into the development and production of AI for large corporate companies.

 

[spoidz]

I have finally switched my own and all my relatives PCs that I maintain to Cube-horizontal cases - Thermaltake Level 20 XT for mine and Core V21 Micro-ATX (4) for them.

Much easier to work in and vertical for all the GFX cards,

I guess I might have to add supports in the future but at least there is no immediate sag from horizontal cards.

 

[Eximo]

These graphics cards are becoming so huge and heavy that soon you will be pluging your motherboard on your graphics card.

I want this. Instead of having an enormous GPU eat up all your expansion slots, why not a GPU that you put the motherboard on top of.

Riser cables get us most of the way, but often still mean a larger than normal case.

They have been putting power connectors on the back of the motherboard, I don't see why that first x16 slot can't be done that way. which gets rid of having to bend a riser from the front to the back in lots of small form factor layouts.

Only downside is being unable to see your GPU. But then I also liked some of the modular desktop design concepts with GPU and CPU modules. Even Intel's attempt was almost it with the NUC on a PCIe board and simple right angle PCB to connect the CPU board to the GPU board.

 

[thisisaname]

These graphics cards are becoming so huge and heavy that soon you will be pluging your motherboard on your graphics card.

This seems like a leitmotiv : maximum powa at all cost. Even when it ends up damaging the hardware itself...

Or your graphic card will be more like the motherboard and everything plugs into it. Can already get a graphics card with an sdd card slot.

 

[BillyBuerger]

I want this. Instead of having an enormous GPU eat up all your expansion slots, why not a GPU that you put the motherboard on top of.

Riser cables get us most of the way, but often still mean a larger than normal case.

They have been putting power connectors on the back of the motherboard, I don't see why that first x16 slot can't be done that way. which gets rid of having to bend a riser from the front to the back in lots of small form factor layouts.

Only downside is being unable to see your GPU. But then I also liked some of the modular desktop design concepts with GPU and CPU modules. Even Intel's attempt was almost it with the NUC on a PCIe board and simple right angle PCB to connect the CPU board to the GPU board.

I had an idea recently where instead of the PCIe x16 slot being on top of the board with the GPU sticking up and needing support, the PCIe slot could be edge mounted on the bottom of a mITX or uATX. Then the GPU would essentially "extend" the motherboard and then be mounted to the case with standoffs. I'm doing something like that using an extension cable. Also means you can do tower coolers on the GPU similar to the CPU. And the whole back end of the card would have room for 3x 8-pin power connectors or just a single 20-24-pin molex connector like the motherboard except all 12V (plus sense pins but somehow motherboards survive without those???) This would all be new standards and crap so It'll likely never happen. But it seems like a much cleaner way to do it. Essentially two motherboards, half CPU and half GPU that have an interface between them and you can swap either half for upgrades.

 

[Eximo]

That would make for a very 'tall' solution. Not too different from what a riser cable will get you now as you say.

I've kind of wanted to push for reducing most expansion cards to half height with the GPU behind the motherboard as in most SFF cases. Or having a vertical mount for GPUs so that you can still have some expansion cards. Right now you just have to go ATX or more so that a few slots poke out past the GPU.

Seems silly to lose out on the x16 slot with a riser cable on Mini ITX. Could be another x16 on the front face for something else. But the problem with pretty much any other solution is the riser cable or the GPU being in the way of further expansion slots.

But if case and motherboard makers are willing to do backside connectors, someone should take the next step.

 

[Notton]

If the x16 slot was placed on the back of the mobo with a 90d downwards angle, you can then route the riser cable around all the slots in-between. If done correctly, it wouldn't need extra tall standoffs, as the bulky connector part would fit inside the CPU backside cutout.

The GPU should get its own suspension. Use some silicone blocks or something. Alternatively, if the various GPU makers could figure out a universal mounting bracket, that would be nice.
Similar to how engine blocks get mounted to car frames.

 

[Conor Stewart]

The article isn't very clear about who's fault it is. Initially I thought it meant the manufacturers were not packaging the cards well, but then I thought why aren't people just RMAing them. It seems what it really means is people sending the GPUs in for repair but aren't packaging them well and at that point it is the users own fault. If people are that careless with their stuff when it is well known how roughly packages are treated then that is completely their fault.

Surely I can't be the only one that keeps the boxes for things like my GPU? If I ever need to transport it anywhere (like when moving down to uni and back) it comes out of the PC and straight into it's original box with all the foam that's designed to keep it safe, mostly because of the size of GPUs now, having that in the PC when it is in the back of a van is just asking for something to break, it's a lot of mass to be flexing up and down.

 

[A Stoner]

Hard to believe that is a professional who is using a carpet as a background and in fact drags the latest to be saved video card across that carpet.

 

[razor512]

For a card like that, why can't they give them a build in fold out telescoping leg similar to the ones used on mini monopods?

Imagine a slimmer version of one of those pocket monopods that the user simply folds out and extends down to the bottom of the case. Make it part of the card to better ensure its use, and make it long enough to fit more case sizes.

While some cards will come with a stand, often they are tiny novelty stands that will at best fit a mini-itx case.

 

[NedSmelly]

I have finally switched my own and all my relatives PCs that I maintain to Cube-horizontal cases

I have always thought that the AT horizontal desktop form factor was overdue for a comeback, especially for large GPUs.

The other configuration that deserves more love is the vertical case, where the ’rear’ ports point upwards. We have a Silverstone FT03 from decades ago and it’s a great air cooled form factor.

 

[spongiemaster]

It's sad to look at NVIDIA's policies and practices, how they treat the competition. And what's even sadder is that such a good GPU silicon is invalidated by NVIDIA's terrifying design of the 4090 RTX, including a pointless power connector. Again, the evidence shows that these cards have another weakness. For NVIDIA's management, the end user has become a cash cow to their billions in profits, which they are now pushing into the development and production of AI for large corporate companies.

What does any of this have to do with customers throwing their $2000 graphics card loose into a box with no padding materials and then shipping it that way?

 

[Loadedaxe]

Yes, lets redesign the modern PC so we can all use a <Mod Edit> poorly designed GPU.

No, the answer is for Nvidia to innovate, not repackage the same design that is garbage! Their advancements in the 4K series was shit, hell it was shit with the 3K series.