NVIDIA accidentally leaves a finger glove sandwiched in a new GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 runs hot in some instances, especially when games and programs subject its VRAM to persistent load. While NVIDIA's stock thermal pads have been found wanting, one Redditor discovered a finger glove nestled beneath them in his new GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition.

Apparently, the card's VRAM chips would quickly reach 110 °C, well above Micron's 94 °C peak operating temperature. Unsurprisingly, the finger glove had melted, but removing it still reduced VRAM temperatures under load to 86 °C. Similarly, peak GPU temperatures dropped by 10 °C from 75 °C.

Upon reporting the issue, NVIDIA stated disassembling the card had extinguished its warranty. However, the company u-turned when the Redditor sent across the photo embedded below, even though opening a device does not necessarily invalidate its warranty in most countries.

Offering a warranty repair proved unnecessary though, as the GeForce RTX 3090 operated as expected once u/antonyjeweet removed the offending finger glove. Thankfully, incidents like these are rare, but they do underline that it is worth checking your new graphics card thoroughly as you are setting it up.

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