Seasonic recommends using hair dryer for bending RTX 40 series power cables

The melting and burning reports of the power cables of Nvidia RTX 40 series cards are still common. According to NorthrigeFix, the repair shop receives hundreds of flagship cards per month that are damaged by the 12V-2x6 or 12VHPWR power cables issue. General investigations have pointed out that the damage mainly happens when the connection isn't secure.

As a precautionary measure, users of RTX 40 series cards are recommended to ensure a minimum space of 35 mm between the first bend and the GPU power connector. This preventive measure aims to eliminate the chances of excessive pulling force on the power pins, which can stop the connections from getting loose.

However, getting this minimum space of 35 mm for a secure fit isn't easy, especially for those cases where the card remains close to the side panel. To make things easier for the RTX 40 series card owners, Seasonic has offered a couple of recommendations to the buyers of its power supplies.

Among them is to use a hair dryer to pre-bend the 12V-2x6 or 12VHPWR power cable before installing the Nvidia RTX 40 series GPUs. In theory, this pre-bending with hair dryers should provide more safety as it makes it easier to achieve at least 35 mm of distance from the bend to the connector.

For those who missed it, MSI also came up with a solution for the RTX 4090 (curr. $2,589.99 on Amazon) users earlier this year. It's simpler than the hair dryer method suggested by Seasonic. Basically, MSI recommended to add brightly colored connection tips. Users can visually inspect whether the connection is secure by checking if any color can be seen after connecting the cables.

Gigabyte's solution to this issue was to implement a "cut out" design that changed the direction in which the connector faces. Nvidia's recommendation, on the other hand, was plugging in the power connector to the RTX 40 series GPUs before putting them into the motherboard's slot.