What do you mean the Customer ? The Customer sent NorthridgeFix the cards. How does than mean the Customer will have spare parts to fix other cards, if he's literally sending them to Northridge fix for attempted repair.
There is another youtuber that fixes cracked cards. Might have to re-ship them there. It might be $500+ to fix, but the cards still sell over $1K I think.
My take: When there is such a common weakness the manufacturer should at least offer cheap GPU-less replacement boards so the GPUs can be re-balled. The 4090 chip is the most expensive part of those boards. I hope you record all the ones your take apart. Would love to see all the ones that get repaired. 17:28 - "ASUS...ASUS if ASUS is watching they're probably going crazy." Customers watch your channel and see what you do. They think you're a miracle worker Alex and quite often you are.
@@mokywlmd572 ...which requires you to find one where all the other components are in working order. What are the chances that the GPU experienced a voltage surge enough to kill it but all the other components are hunky dory? Yeah...we know that's an option. It shouldn't be the best available option. "simply" yes...thank you for your input.
All those cards looks quite new to me, the Asus cards all cracked at the same area. Maybe the customer is in a PC assembly business. He assembled all these PCs for his customers and boxed it without internal support to the display cards. Rough handling of the boxes during delivery by someone might be the cause. It is so sad to see so many cards died like that.
I was thinking something similar, this is for sure user error. Where they crack is the tab that goes into the locking mechanism of the motherboard, not a single one cracked at the pcie slot.
LOL Seriously?!? Rough handling??? How does rough handling affect one tiny specific area?? And how do you crack a PCB.... Those things are hard as hell! NO!!! Something or someone applied pressure on those spots and yeah... I would bet it was exactly as he stated! These cards are HEAVY af!!! It's a matter of time before they bend and start cracking... And those spots are actually the most fragile ones... GPU's are screwed on the back, providing support up till the center of the card roughly... While the rest of the weight... ONLY is supported by the PCI slot... So you get alllll the support for the back of the card and almost no support for the front of the card. If you have a 3 fan GPU... GOOD LUCK! You're going to need it. It's also a miracle that motherboard PCI slots are not breaking too! GPU industry is a JOKEEEEEE! The moment I saw the Nvidia 3000's series I started laughing... NO WAY I'm going to buy a 3 slot GPU and on top with a "special connector". The 4000 series is a little better but oh well... Still not enough! A lot of things are not enough!! These things cost +1000$ and they don't even check if the thing as a proper weight or if it's a reliable/solid product. Just INSANE bs!!! Multi billion dollar companies and they behave like kindergarten kids... They don't know what they're doing
Fun Fact all the ASUS ones (At least 4090s and 4080s) comes with a nice sturdy support stand for the GPU so the most likely scenario is: These probably failed while shipping from an ISB (PC Builders) to the client.
I use the adjustable support that came with my ASUS TUF OC 4090. It's just a friction fit support with rubber ends. I could never imagine why someone would ship it with any confidence that it would stay put. A small bump can and likely will rattle it loose. That's not ASUS's fault in my opinion, they offered a solution in box. That's not a catch all for stupidity and not yeilding to the basic laws of physics. Whoever did this would probably drive their car without engine mounts too.
Mine wasn't even enough height, couldn't use it. Used something else but after seeing this video, I literally stopped what I was doing and put my tower on the side til I figure out what I'd prefer to do.
@@ryanmann3412 what case are you using? or did you take out the drive cage in favour of fans? It should fit if you have the holder sitting on top of a drive cage cover.
@@abmong Thermaltake View 51. I don't believe there was a drive cage to begin with. but if so, I can't recall, it wouldve been removed as I only used m.2s in this build. It's wide open on the bottom, in which I put three intake fans. I used a longer style bracket that had to rest on top of a fan. I'd have to take the card out and inspect it. I will, just don't feel like it for now and threw the case on it's side and removed the support.
As someone who owns a Asus 4090 I can say that they do come with a support kickstand. I suspect the video card came from an OEM PC maker. My 4090 came damaged from shipping also the kickstand was never included. I asked for a replacement and was sent a wrapped brand new 4090 with the kickstand and some other stuff that was never included.
Can confirm also that the Asus gpu comes with an anti sag stand. It worked for my case... But I assume there are a lot of cases where you can't use that at all?
!00% agree they should be shipped in two boxes. I only went OEM build because at the time it was hard to find a 4090. Super bummer when it came damaged.@@shanemitchell477
The problem is not the pcb cracking ... the real problem is that there are traces in this weak spot ... the manufacturers know that that area is a weak spot and suffers a lot of mechanical stress ... yet they put traces and tracks in that area ... coincidence? ... i don't think so
They have limited space to work on. I guarantee they're not wasting space and the cracks will travel further between the layers that what you see in this video. The problem is solely weight and lack of support by the installer, whomever that is.
All these cards come with a support bracket, gigabytes is a bit finicky to install. Its more than likely these cards cracked while they were shipped inside a PC.
Totally agree with you mate I think the price of cards now and the size and weight of the cards they dam well know they should come with the card with a warning sticker to use a support stand .
not really, the way things are going with the power gfx cards are needed, the old way using existing pcb board thickness isnt enough to hold the weight, its ok saying "make sure to screw them in to the back plates" etc, but the actual manufacuring of "future" cards need to be revised, otherwise these type of faults wont end
I mounted my 4090 vertically because it's such a big & heavy card. I was afraid it might crack the pcb. You don't realize that until you hold one. My 4090 dwarf's my 3090 & 3080 in both weight and size.
@@exreficul2502mounting my 3090 vertically definitely without a shadow of a doubt helped with the sag of my video card. No matter how many times I tried to help support the video card horizontally that would sag a bit, which made me worry of mine breaking the motherboard or the video card cracking. I don’t care to use a GPU support bracket because I believe that takes away from the aesthetic appeal of the card. Although, there are some that look great with the built in GPU support bracket
The way those came in I am willing to bet the owner is a system integrator or builder himself. Most of those are shipping damage already from the start. That happens in that field and would explain how many they have
I would guess the person who send this in bought them for a cheaper price from a company which might have had this problem. And thought he is gonna make some easy money by sending it to NF to get them fixed...
The best way to avoid breaking the board is using vertical mount. That way the pcie slot doesn't get stressed and it is connected to the riser cable. All of the weight is handled by the mounting bracket on the PC Case. If you can buy a heavy and expensive video card you should be able to afford a riser cable and a Case that supports vertical mounting.
@@germanmosca or get a founders edition card, they are rock solid due to their full metal frame and 3 screws with no sag at all despite using a 4090 😅.
Pretty much we've reached the threshold of 12-15 layer PCB supporting that kind of weight without extra support and not considering the extra vibration imposed that can exacerbate the issue. As I remember correctly, motherboard manufacturers reinforced the PCIE slots was due to tearing of the slots because of the ever increasing trend of heavier GPUs. Now it came full circle and found a new weak spot being the PCB no longer can handle the heatsink weight overtime or when subjected to additional external forces.
That's a lot of nice cards. Thats a lot of cracks. Makes me wonder why you never see Nvidia Founder's Editions cracked, and you never see solely AMD's board partners (XFX, Sapphire, Powercolor) PCBs cracked. MSI, Asus, Gigabyte and Zotac have been cutting corners for years. Now its finally starting to add up and we're seeing damage from normal use. Video card support brackets didnt use to exist. Yes cards are heavier, but they also used to be built better.
They're built the same way they've always been built, but the PCB structure and material hasn't fundamentally changed, and it's not reinforced. The 4090 models released by Nvidia and its board partners are among the largest, heaviest and longest consumer graphics cards to have been released yet. Four slots' worth of GPU cooler and all its metal at roughly 14 inches in length bearing down on a PCIe connector with all that leverage and without any external support is a recipe for disaster, regardless of how well built the board is.
Almost all cards now come with a support bracket, as well as most computer cases have one. A lot of people just opt not to install them, because they do not like the look of them.
They shouldn't honestly. If they need one then they're too big/heavy and shouldn't be sold in my personal opinion. It's the reason I traded in my MSI 3070 Ventus 3x for a MSI 4070 Ventus 2x. Half the size and a 8 pin to 8 pin connector on top of running far cooler, and still being noticeably faster GPU. I've seen a few Tech Tubers even downgrading from a more powerful GPU to the 4070 for the same reason. To me the 4070 is the best GPU of this generation. The only other GPU of interest this generation for me that I find impressive is the Intel 580.
@@Alte.Kameraden a 4090 is an insanely powerful card, that burns a ton of energy, so it needs lots of cooling. Not really anyways around that besides water cooling or buying a slower less powerful card.
@@aaronwlkr Which is entirely the problem. It's pointlessly powerful, and large. The fact AMD gave up trying to make a GPU that matches it, and Intel isn't even trying to match it. I don't see how any sane person would want one. I mean this generation the only GPUs that have impressed me thus far are the 4070 and Intels 580. For me it isn't about RAW power, that's a fools game.
@@aaronwlkr Again, it's a fools game. I have zero sympathy for 4090 users who GPUs go up in smoke, or break in some other fashion. It's like owning a Tiger vs a House Cat, Tiger is ridiculous to own, but some people pay the money for it. Like a Tiger randomly deciding to bite you in the back of the neck, a 4090 will go poof. It's a terrible investment in short. Adding a water cooler to it is irrelevant as it doesn't solve the power hungry issues, maybe if only the weight issue, but in turn at the cost of a grossly more complex PC build. Basically the only "SANE" option is not buying a 4090.
@@Alte.Kameraden I'm sorry, what? You don't see how any sane person would want... a really powerful card to get high framerates in recent games with max settings in higher resolutions? If you personally prefer to play games at 1080, that's fine, but acting like other people are crazy for wanting higher end cards is just weird. In Cyberpunk, for example, even a heavily overclocked 4090 struggles to get much more than 60 fps without DLSS at higher resolutions with ultra settings and ray tracing. When there are _already_ games that push the fastest graphics card to its limit, you can't really argue that it's "pointlessly powerful."
All those boards cracking on the same spot indicates that the retainer tabs on today's motherboards could have something to do with it. Since the cards are so heavy and is basically locked by that tab unto the motherboard, it stands to reason that it will be the point that takes the most pressure, hence... crack.
So let me get this straight, the motherboards are at fault (when this was never really an issue in the past), despite the fact that it is the GPU's that have been increasing in size. Ok, got it.
I suspect this was all done by one person trying to brute force the card out of a motherboard without knowing how the retaining tab works. They probably even wiggled the card along its length to try and get it out.
How the retaining tab works was covered in detail in my ASUS MB manual. "Before things fail, read the owner's manual." if I might add, read it before inserting or removing the GPC. @@muhdiversity7409
For a heavy auxiliary board, it may be advisable to have the unit in question fixed directly to the metal-work frame of the computer box, and a socket on a flying lead that is then fitted without stress to the heavy auxiliary unit, such as those 4090 video boards.
these new video cards are HEAVY i have no idea why they’d be shipping these Pc’s with the cards in them. And if you’re installing these new cards you gotta install it on the side with a support which is crazy to me .
I selling gaming PCs as a side business. It is absolutely possible to do but your must support the GPU in multiple places. I use foam blocks that I cut to size, never had an issue.
A local company here ships their assembled gaming pcs with expanding foam blocks (wrapped in antistatic plastic film) inside the case supporting the CPU cooler and the GPU. A 2.5 kg GPU hanging from a PCIe slot and one single screw on the bracket. It's an industry practice that definitely should be changed. Companies already started making "armored" PCIe sockets for these super heavy GPUs, maybe they need to start armoring the GPUs next? Or maybe the cases should come with GPU supports as standard or the GPU should be mounted vertically?
System builders like this already claimed insurance from shipping damage so this is just extra income if they can be fixed. Builders are paid either way so they don't care. Sucks for the kids who spend $5k on 4090 gaming PC and have to deal with the incompetence.
let's be honest even if you manage to fix them there seems no way to do a reliable repair. The ones broken at the anchors seem more repairable though but still again there is no guarantee the fix would hold if the original board did not hold!
I wonder if some of those cards could be used, (where a structural damage did not involve internal electronic tracings) if they were used remote, or on Vertical adapters?
Never fix PCB cracks/damages. Even at work, these would be designated as scraps. Layered boards like these can have 12V DC on layer 4 going to layer 10 but disconnected by the crack.
When I bought a pre-built a few years ago the liquid cooling drained onto the PCI-e and took out both the motherboard and graphics card. And that was before the era of huge graphics chards. Sometimes it's just easier to build your own PC.
Looks as if a Whole Rack or 3 fell over onto the card and they all broke the same way. Yes, it Can happen in shipping but most system builders account for that and take measures to prevent breakage during shipping. I would bet a coin farming rack came down. Good luck mate.
I have an 6900XT that I bought 2 years ago. Even for that older card it is impossible for the PCIe connector to support the weight of the card. The card came with its own support bracket and the manual clearly stated that you should support the card
WOEW!!!!! (Roughly} $38,000.00 worth of video cards ready for the landfill. Only good for spare parts for what, MORE broken 4090's? Some type of mechanical support is definitely needed. Feel sorry for this customer, that's an expensive mistake sending all those at once, he should've sent 'one' to Alex first. They apparently don't understand that these boards are multi layer and almost impossible to repair. Even if you did they'd just break again. There is NO way of making a lasting fix here unless you could acquire brand new unpopulated boards and transferred all the components over to them. There again, NOT feasible. 🤦♂
They get turned into an electronics reclaiming company, they grind them up, extract the gold, then what do you suppose they do with what's left? Do your research. 🤦♂@@80n3y4rd
i am so happy that I stepped out from gamers worlds in 2009 November 1 ...I got up from the computer and said I'm done....i will never forget how mentaly strong I was on that night ....but the idea had been simmering in me for some time....sorry for offtopic but I just remembered the amount of money spent on that addiction
This is why I have both a support bracket and a support post for my 4090 Gaming Trio. Bracket holds up the outer side, post gives support to the inner side at the far end. It's really stable and I'm not too worried about this issue now.
I am using 2 anti sag brackets for 4090, I installed it with vertically with brackets and after that lifted case to have minimal probability of sag. For me 2000 usd is lot of money, I have to work a lot to get money for nice things.
I have an ex where if the thing doesn't budge then the solution is to apply more force. She's a very intelligent woman but not when it comes to physical things that plug together. I suspect all the damage was done by one person tasked with removing these cards from their motherboard.
People were saying it was a Gigabyte issue. Now we can see it's from different board makers. I have a 4090 Gaming OC & have not got a crack on my board.
Good info. I didn't know about this cracking issue. Glad I mount my card vertically. My 4090 is due to be delivered to you in a couple days to have the connector replaced courtesy of CableMod as the connector melted. It was inserted correctly in the GPU and not wiggled or moved at any time. Just melted and hard a hard time removing the connector. They are standing behind the product, but I am sure some blame is due to the design of the GPU having only one plug. I will be watching all your videos.
Most 4090 is long and thicc, stuff like this will eventually happened even if you use a support stand. The only way to avoid is to use pcie riser that hold the weight on the cooler itself and not on the pcie. Most of it aren't cheap cause some priced at 100-150 USD and even more. If you can afford a 4090 you can also afford that riser.
Wow! Such a heavy card to have only the edge of the board for support. I can see exactly as you mentioned happening during shipping and someone installing one themselves without extreme care taken. And possibly after a system build just moving it around etc. Seems like these heavy boards absolutely have to have additional support and possibly need to go to a liguid cooler so the cooling system can be remote mounted and lines simply connecting to the board? The weight of the heavy fans and heatsinks can then be reduced. Something has to change! 🤯
so if the pcb cracs but the core and vrams and other components likely in good condition, can it be fixed by using a donor card that had core issues but good pcb ?
My new card never came with a support / kickstand, but after seeing so many videos from this TH-camr I can assure you I will be measuring the dimensions and 3D printing something....
I have a Gigabyte RTX 3080 Aorus Master one of the heaviest chunks of GPU ever produced mounted horizontally without issues. I'm using a support thingy which cost me 10 bucks as manufacturer can't be bothered with such amenities and didn't play soccer with my computer ever.
It may be time to reinforce or re-engineer the key/hook. It seems that many of the damage is right there at that location. I doubt if the original pcie engineer imagined there would be so much weight hanging on that slot.
Took a bit of scrolling to find someone mentioning the ATX standard from the 90's is not holding up so well. It's time to move on folks and start using an improved standard.
I believe if the card is built against a standard of weight then they should supply Supports that hold them up or warranty them. Its a simple plastic part that can be 3d printed or in the companies case injection molded. Push off the bottom or attach to the top and extends with a tension knob to stop this problem.
The pci-e slot clip can snag on the card when trying to remove it, and the clip is often hard to get to with bare fingers. I guess a lot of people pull the card out expecting it to come right out, and when it doesn't (because the clip hasn't been pushed back), they wrestle with the card. Really, the first thing you should do unplug display cable and then release that clip and pull the card out before unplugging any power connectors.
The area that is cracked, why would that area have any PCB tracks? I don't see any good reason to route tracks down there in the "lock" area and back up.
I'd guess those are from a Company that does pre built systems and the cards are breaking during shipping. Some card makers are now including a support bracket that connects to the stand off pins on the motherboard, apparently they aren't using them. I'd bet this is rare for a card installed by the end user.
@@Takedown87 I agree. In my opinion it's the builders fault. My Gigabyte 4090 has a bracket that screws into the standoffs on the motherboard, it's super stable but I'd still use some kind of foam to support it along with the bracket if I were going to ship. The nice thing about this type of bracket it keeps the GPU from going down or up. With the type that supports from the bottom I could see the box getting flipped in all directions and breaking the board in the up direction.
Still using my old Silverstone FT02, cards install vertically, no problem! Edit: Still, aren't all these damages most likely caused by excessive force while under shipping or transportation mounted in a case but not supported internally with foam blocks or other measures? Couldn't it be a lot from a commercial PC builder who sold complete builds but failed in proper packaging techniques and getting a lot of customer return claims?
For the amount they charge I blame the manufacturer 90%. Unless it was made perfectly clear that you need to support card. Then 50/50. Im curious if these cards have damaged any mother boards.
all those card looked so clean and brand new... i think when a manufacturer produces a new product, there should be all new design factors controlled ! such a heavy component on the board for thermal control, should not make the Video card so heavy that it breaks when its plugged on the motherboard. since we all know most cards are installed on a case wall, not bottom! and yes ! they know all about it ... these are all new ways to make more money! but what about reputation?! IDK
@@-AMD-Ryzen it may be the pre installed shipment problem! but its not one or two! theres a bunch of them! and why we dont see 4050 or 3080 problems!? why all on 4090?! melting connectors, cracked boards! i think as a well known company that produces such heavy duty cards, these kind of issues, should be measured before luanch. and if it happend , it just a responsibility for the company! not to change those cards, but to improve the final build quality ! nor being silent or blame the final user for a design problem or flaw
Curious if Nvdia would take the cards and use the Gpus on a new pcb. I saw videos where cards that had things wrong with the pcb like cracks were sent to a shop where they took the processors off of old pcbs and put them on a new pcb.
it really looks like a design flaw to me. Why does that board finger stick out there? What is it's purpose? Those cards are expensive not only to purchase, but the R & D time to develop. You would think something like this would have shown up during the development process.Also you are right about UPS. I once ordered 25 computers around Christmas time. Who ever assembled them only screwed the hard drives on one side. I had to have 23 of the hard drives replaces. Crappy quality control.
The slot design predates large video cards, and the hook is used to seat and lock the card in place, I am fairly sure that you never see that damage on ANY other add on cards...
With the cost of the 4090's, I would almost want a small case dedicated, just for it. Instead of using a Huge Heat-sink and Fan combo, put the electronic workings, on an ITX board instead, and use a decent AIO cooler. It would be awesome to see a matching set of cases from a company like Fractal Design, one being mid tower ATX for the CPU and Storage, the other being an ITX case, for the Video Card itself.
@@greenman8 Designed for the buyers who can buy it. And manufacturers doesn't seem to stop there, more weight, more price, more hpwr, more melt, more crack, more power consumption. :D I hope 5000 series comes with even thinner new uhpwr connector, both end on the psu too, so buyers can buy new power supply on one fail at the same time. :D
I wonder if the FR-4 in those boards is of similar quality? Maybe some manufacturers use cheaper/weaker PCB material? PCB material *can* be different in rigidity and strength depending on the fab but it's really hard to know as an end-customer.
4090 reminds me of big heavy computers from the 50s where obscene amounts of electricity were required to power them and they ocupied an entire room. Too big too heavy too power hungry
Interesting you mention this...since I know for a fact the better industrial and case manufacturers back then already had standardized support at the end of the card, which is still pretty common in server land.
Obscene amounts? 4090 uses between 200-300w under normal operating conditions and whilst doing so, delivers almost 2x more performance per watt than anything that came before. I think you're a bit off on this, bro.
@@tonyd9394 well the phrase you quote is related to early computers. I was reading the other day that Eniac used 174kw. Anyway if 4090 melts its connectors then its using too much. Under heavy load sometimes it spykes to 700w which is as much as some split ACs... ridicoulous
I just bought a Sapphire RX7900XT Pulse and it came with a support brace I don't think it's long enough as the card exceeds the length of the brace by a good 5 inches or so. I might add my old brace for more support so I'll have 2 braces on the card.
Can't blame the manufacturer here. The thickness of the board is dictated by the PCIe standard and the material options are limited by the required number of layers. They could ship them with a big warning label, a support stand or a riser cable though. If your card is over 1000 bucks I would expect some goodies with it that prevent it from instantly self-destructing.
And most do, my 4080 and 4090 came with supports and it stated that they must be used. Unfortunately many people know then manufacturers and we get cracked boards and “idk what happened”
I suspect that with the size of the card and the fear of the burning connector ppl are putting too much pressure on the card either with the cable or while removing and reseating the card, cracking the card.
I think there are many different reasons. Pre-installed and broken during shipping. By the customer due to improper handling (forgetting to open the unlocking mechanism). Because the cards have become so expensive, I suspect that many people are assembling their own PCs and making mistakes. A fully assembled PC should never be shipped because graphics cards these days have become far too heavy.
I've seen so many of these 4090 gpus getting cracked right at the same spot by the PciE retention tab. At this point this is screaming manufacturing defect rather than customer misuse. I honestly hope someone brings a class action suit against this. I feel a bit safer since I ditched the extremely heavy cooler on my 4090 for a waterblock and i'd honestly recommend anyone else with a 4090 to just liquid cool it.
Let's face, that design of the board just isn't compatible with the huge 40 series cards. Probably the 30 series as well. Would it be possible to reinforce the card in that area? I don't know but clearly something needs to be done.
And they may indeed be correct in doing so, but damage caused by user error on this magnitude stinks of a gross design oversight on the manufacturers end.
Do you have a list of no-fix scenarios on the site to tell customers prior to them sending in a product? it would be a good service to warn customers first
Given that all 19 came from the same customer, I suspect that the actual owner of these 19 RTX 4090s was running a mining farm, and hired someone to either install, re-install and then again reinstall these - because ruptures on some of these show ignorance and no care needed... someone who was paid to "plug computer parts in" / "unplug parts" etc. If there is a such weakness in the material of the card, the issues would be wide spread and recalls would be issued... So, out of thousands of these sold, 19 do not make it a case for a recall, or to blame manufacturers for "bad" manufacturing quality...
NorthridgeFix to answer your question - buyers. They wanted overpriced Nvidia 4090 cards with massive heatsinks, well they got it. Instead not support nvidia and NOT buying those cards. I have no remorse for those who didnt get cards refunded. You learned lesson hard way.
Yes it's consumer driven demand, BUT the consumer is hoodwinked by the industry to demand such items. If modern games were properly optimized most people would not require a 4090. Also there are only two companies in the market. In a natural economy, there would be way more competition. But it isn't a free market economy as the rules are set by the global leaders in hardware and software development.
About whose to blame, my two cents is that the card manufacturers and quality control are to blame. They knew about this issue much before the product even came to the market. Adding such a big, heavy heat sink is an obvious risk to anyone with a common sense but they ignored it.
"Great video." Cudos to you. Now, I would say it is both user and partially manufacturer. I have had a 4090 since October of last year, and I've taken the card out at 2 or 3 times to clean it. I've always inspected my 4090 before and after installing. I use the support bar for it. This is a must weighing 5lbs, I have the Gigabyte gaming oc, and to this day, not one crack. You just got a subscriber added to your channel.
The SGI Indigo 2 had massive horizontally mounted video boards like this but they were slotted into a card cage with several inches of solid metal rails attached to the chassis.
I think the whole issue is caused by insanely heavy cards combined with the fact that the part that hooks into PCIe connector is part of PCB. If Asus et al had made that part out of metal, it might have saved these cards. On the other hard, the damage that broke this cards would have then ripped the PCIe connector off the motherboard but maybe the motherboard would have been cheaper to replace than these super expensive GPUs.
I think the other major point to look at with these is that the heatsinks are simply becoming far too big and heavy to be supported by existing pcie hardware. These either need to move to water cooling or dial back the heat and prioritize for efficiency instead of performance at all costs
i think i saw some video few months back where the blame kind of was put on ASUS for the way they designed the PCB too narrow near the lock mechanism while other brands have it wider so its not that easy to bend (crack)
I got a PNY 4080 new from a reputable distributor, it cane with a bracket in the box to help support the card so installed that along with the card not sure if gigabyte or asus supply a bracket with the 4090 but you would think that they do
I do seem to have issues with Video cards getting bigger and heavier for the PCI slots, there is not enough support to keep them from putting strain on those slots. I think companies need to start thinking about that and fix it.
Well, now the customer has a ton of spare parts to fix a LOT of other cards.
He just became the #1 supplier of 4090 components in the US.
What do you mean the Customer ? The Customer sent NorthridgeFix the cards. How does than mean the Customer will have spare parts to fix other cards, if he's literally sending them to Northridge fix for attempted repair.
@@StatsGam4er Sometimes other shops sent over hard cases to Northridge Fix.
Ahh that's interesting. Thanks for clearing that one up.@@huyanh995
There is another youtuber that fixes cracked cards. Might have to re-ship them there. It might be $500+ to fix, but the cards still sell over $1K I think.
My take:
When there is such a common weakness the manufacturer should at least offer cheap GPU-less replacement boards so the GPUs can be re-balled.
The 4090 chip is the most expensive part of those boards.
I hope you record all the ones your take apart. Would love to see all the ones that get repaired.
17:28 - "ASUS...ASUS if ASUS is watching they're probably going crazy."
Customers watch your channel and see what you do.
They think you're a miracle worker Alex and quite often you are.
You can simply do that on a board that the GPU don't work
@@mokywlmd572 ...which requires you to find one where all the other components are in working order. What are the chances that the GPU experienced a voltage surge enough to kill it but all the other components are hunky dory? Yeah...we know that's an option. It shouldn't be the best available option. "simply" yes...thank you for your input.
what about the fact that it's entirely was sent by 1 costumer
It's called manufactured obsolescence
its not a weakness, the motherboard is tough.. the weight isnt an issue, its a user propblem.. fix your mounts.
All those cards looks quite new to me, the Asus cards all cracked at the same area. Maybe the customer is in a PC assembly business. He assembled all these PCs for his customers and boxed it without internal support to the display cards. Rough handling of the boxes during delivery by someone might be the cause. It is so sad to see so many cards died like that.
Talk about an expensive mistake
I was thinking something similar, this is for sure user error. Where they crack is the tab that goes into the locking mechanism of the motherboard, not a single one cracked at the pcie slot.
Most probably,
LOL Seriously?!? Rough handling??? How does rough handling affect one tiny specific area?? And how do you crack a PCB.... Those things are hard as hell! NO!!! Something or someone applied pressure on those spots and yeah... I would bet it was exactly as he stated! These cards are HEAVY af!!! It's a matter of time before they bend and start cracking... And those spots are actually the most fragile ones... GPU's are screwed on the back, providing support up till the center of the card roughly... While the rest of the weight... ONLY is supported by the PCI slot... So you get alllll the support for the back of the card and almost no support for the front of the card. If you have a 3 fan GPU... GOOD LUCK! You're going to need it. It's also a miracle that motherboard PCI slots are not breaking too!
GPU industry is a JOKEEEEEE! The moment I saw the Nvidia 3000's series I started laughing... NO WAY I'm going to buy a 3 slot GPU and on top with a "special connector". The 4000 series is a little better but oh well... Still not enough! A lot of things are not enough!! These things cost +1000$ and they don't even check if the thing as a proper weight or if it's a reliable/solid product. Just INSANE bs!!! Multi billion dollar companies and they behave like kindergarten kids... They don't know what they're doing
Sadly i bet your right,n Asus gets the flack.i used them for sooo long.not 1 problem ever!
Fun Fact all the ASUS ones (At least 4090s and 4080s) comes with a nice sturdy support stand for the GPU so the most likely scenario is: These probably failed while shipping from an ISB (PC Builders) to the client.
I use the adjustable support that came with my ASUS TUF OC 4090. It's just a friction fit support with rubber ends. I could never imagine why someone would ship it with any confidence that it would stay put. A small bump can and likely will rattle it loose. That's not ASUS's fault in my opinion, they offered a solution in box. That's not a catch all for stupidity and not yeilding to the basic laws of physics. Whoever did this would probably drive their car without engine mounts too.
Mine wasn't even enough height, couldn't use it. Used something else but after seeing this video, I literally stopped what I was doing and put my tower on the side til I figure out what I'd prefer to do.
@@ryanmann3412 what case are you using? or did you take out the drive cage in favour of fans? It should fit if you have the holder sitting on top of a drive cage cover.
why the fuck do we even need support stands for videocards
@@abmong Thermaltake View 51. I don't believe there was a drive cage to begin with. but if so, I can't recall, it wouldve been removed as I only used m.2s in this build. It's wide open on the bottom, in which I put three intake fans. I used a longer style bracket that had to rest on top of a fan. I'd have to take the card out and inspect it. I will, just don't feel like it for now and threw the case on it's side and removed the support.
Curious, why didnt the customer ask if you're willing to repair 19 cards with cracked PCB before sending it in?
Maybe the customer was not aware of the cracks?
Doubt the customer knew what was wrong with them.
customer wrote damage so he knew...
@@kroks06 we have a "video" there too, what "video" means?
Besides, the truth is we don't know who exactly wrote those things there.
@@kroks06 Knowing they are damaged is different to knowing why they're damaged....
As someone who owns a Asus 4090 I can say that they do come with a support kickstand. I suspect the video card came from an OEM PC maker. My 4090 came damaged from shipping also the kickstand was never included. I asked for a replacement and was sent a wrapped brand new 4090 with the kickstand and some other stuff that was never included.
Can confirm also that the Asus gpu comes with an anti sag stand.
It worked for my case... But I assume there are a lot of cases where you can't use that at all?
The support stand that came with the card is too short for some
They should NOT ship the larger cards in the slot, it should simply be separate with instructions on how to install it.
!00% agree they should be shipped in two boxes. I only went OEM build because at the time it was hard to find a 4090. Super bummer when it came damaged.@@shanemitchell477
@shanemitchell477 it's not a pre-built then.
these cards with the cracked boards are perfect for those Chinese factories that repurpose 4090 into blower-style server cards with a custom pcbs.
Circumventing the export ban would 100% land you in jail.
@@MandoMTL that's why you just sell the cards to Vietnam or Singapur. the rest isn't your concern.
Lmao no it won’t.
The problem is not the pcb cracking ... the real problem is that there are traces in this weak spot ... the manufacturers know that that area is a weak spot and suffers a lot of mechanical stress ... yet they put traces and tracks in that area ... coincidence? ... i don't think so
Thank God my msi 4090 liquid X is still good lol😅 still running like a beast
Why would they put traces to and from the pci-e slot? Can not be a coincidence 🤡🤡🤡
It's the PCIe connection. Obviously it has to have traces leading from it lol
Why Asus intentionally make a inferior products 😮
They have limited space to work on. I guarantee they're not wasting space and the cracks will travel further between the layers that what you see in this video. The problem is solely weight and lack of support by the installer, whomever that is.
I think moving forward manufacturers need to supply a support bracket with the card even if its a cheapo one.
All these cards come with a support bracket, gigabytes is a bit finicky to install. Its more than likely these cards cracked while they were shipped inside a PC.
Totally agree with you mate I think the price of cards now and the size and weight of the cards they dam well know they should come with the card with a warning sticker to use a support stand .
not really, the way things are going with the power gfx cards are needed, the old way using existing pcb board thickness isnt enough to hold the weight, its ok saying "make sure to screw them in to the back plates" etc, but the actual manufacuring of "future" cards need to be revised, otherwise these type of faults wont end
They do
@@daves8718 My 3060ti never got one. Then again, even with 3 fans, it is diminutive compared to the more powerful cards.
I mounted my 4090 vertically because it's such a big & heavy card. I was afraid it might crack the pcb.
You don't realize that until you hold one. My 4090 dwarf's my 3090 & 3080 in both weight and size.
does mounting it vertically help with the sag? i have a vertical gpu mount on the way
@@exreficul2502mounting my 3090 vertically definitely without a shadow of a doubt helped with the sag of my video card. No matter how many times I tried to help support the video card horizontally that would sag a bit, which made me worry of mine breaking the motherboard or the video card cracking. I don’t care to use a GPU support bracket because I believe that takes away from the aesthetic appeal of the card. Although, there are some that look great with the built in GPU support bracket
Just curious @James how much of a difference is the 4090 to the 3090 in terms or weight and size?
I did the same. 40 series GPU's are just too heavy to trust to horizontal mounts.
@@anorax001any issues with vertically mounting the 4090? I had a couple with the 3090
The way those came in I am willing to bet the owner is a system integrator or builder himself. Most of those are shipping damage already from the start. That happens in that field and would explain how many they have
i would bet they all are RMA's
I would guess the person who send this in bought them for a cheaper price from a company which might have had this problem. And thought he is gonna make some easy money by sending it to NF to get them fixed...
An SI would know a cracked pcb is not worth trying to fix, they would also probably be able to elaborate on the type of "damage"
The best way to avoid breaking the board is using vertical mount. That way the pcie slot doesn't get stressed and it is connected to the riser cable. All of the weight is handled by the mounting bracket on the PC Case. If you can buy a heavy and expensive video card you should be able to afford a riser cable and a Case that supports vertical mounting.
Just use the supplied magnetic kick stand in the box. Zero problems on my 3 ASUS 4090 OC Edition.
@@genderlessyoutubefanperson If it was long/high enough that would indeed be an option for many people.
@@germanmosca or get a founders edition card, they are rock solid due to their full metal frame and 3 screws with no sag at all despite using a 4090 😅.
Pretty much we've reached the threshold of 12-15 layer PCB supporting that kind of weight without extra support and not considering the extra vibration imposed that can exacerbate the issue. As I remember correctly, motherboard manufacturers reinforced the PCIE slots was due to tearing of the slots because of the ever increasing trend of heavier GPUs. Now it came full circle and found a new weak spot being the PCB no longer can handle the heatsink weight overtime or when subjected to additional external forces.
It would be time for a new type of connector tbh... Not this intricate shape for a 2kg card.
It is not the layers the problem, it is the Cooler and the size of the PCB, which is way too small.
That's a lot of nice cards. Thats a lot of cracks.
Makes me wonder why you never see Nvidia Founder's Editions cracked, and you never see solely AMD's board partners (XFX, Sapphire, Powercolor) PCBs cracked.
MSI, Asus, Gigabyte and Zotac have been cutting corners for years. Now its finally starting to add up and we're seeing damage from normal use. Video card support brackets didnt use to exist.
Yes cards are heavier, but they also used to be built better.
They're built the same way they've always been built, but the PCB structure and material hasn't fundamentally changed, and it's not reinforced. The 4090 models released by Nvidia and its board partners are among the largest, heaviest and longest consumer graphics cards to have been released yet. Four slots' worth of GPU cooler and all its metal at roughly 14 inches in length bearing down on a PCIe connector with all that leverage and without any external support is a recipe for disaster, regardless of how well built the board is.
i switched from gigabyte GPU to Powercolor for a similar reason. too many issues. powercoler has been flawless for me so far.
Almost all cards now come with a support bracket, as well as most computer cases have one. A lot of people just opt not to install them, because they do not like the look of them.
They shouldn't honestly. If they need one then they're too big/heavy and shouldn't be sold in my personal opinion. It's the reason I traded in my MSI 3070 Ventus 3x for a MSI 4070 Ventus 2x. Half the size and a 8 pin to 8 pin connector on top of running far cooler, and still being noticeably faster GPU. I've seen a few Tech Tubers even downgrading from a more powerful GPU to the 4070 for the same reason. To me the 4070 is the best GPU of this generation. The only other GPU of interest this generation for me that I find impressive is the Intel 580.
@@Alte.Kameraden a 4090 is an insanely powerful card, that burns a ton of energy, so it needs lots of cooling. Not really anyways around that besides water cooling or buying a slower less powerful card.
@@aaronwlkr Which is entirely the problem. It's pointlessly powerful, and large. The fact AMD gave up trying to make a GPU that matches it, and Intel isn't even trying to match it. I don't see how any sane person would want one.
I mean this generation the only GPUs that have impressed me thus far are the 4070 and Intels 580. For me it isn't about RAW power, that's a fools game.
@@aaronwlkr Again, it's a fools game. I have zero sympathy for 4090 users who GPUs go up in smoke, or break in some other fashion. It's like owning a Tiger vs a House Cat, Tiger is ridiculous to own, but some people pay the money for it. Like a Tiger randomly deciding to bite you in the back of the neck, a 4090 will go poof.
It's a terrible investment in short. Adding a water cooler to it is irrelevant as it doesn't solve the power hungry issues, maybe if only the weight issue, but in turn at the cost of a grossly more complex PC build.
Basically the only "SANE" option is not buying a 4090.
@@Alte.Kameraden I'm sorry, what? You don't see how any sane person would want... a really powerful card to get high framerates in recent games with max settings in higher resolutions? If you personally prefer to play games at 1080, that's fine, but acting like other people are crazy for wanting higher end cards is just weird. In Cyberpunk, for example, even a heavily overclocked 4090 struggles to get much more than 60 fps without DLSS at higher resolutions with ultra settings and ray tracing. When there are _already_ games that push the fastest graphics card to its limit, you can't really argue that it's "pointlessly powerful."
Majority of these cards have an issue that started with weight.
or that the motherboards have fixed graphics card connectors rather than flat cables.
All those boards cracking on the same spot indicates that the retainer tabs on today's motherboards could have something to do with it. Since the cards are so heavy and is basically locked by that tab unto the motherboard, it stands to reason that it will be the point that takes the most pressure, hence... crack.
So let me get this straight, the motherboards are at fault (when this was never really an issue in the past), despite the fact that it is the GPU's that have been increasing in size. Ok, got it.
I suspect this was all done by one person trying to brute force the card out of a motherboard without knowing how the retaining tab works. They probably even wiggled the card along its length to try and get it out.
@@muhdiversity7409 Agreed!!!!
How the retaining tab works was covered in detail in my ASUS MB manual. "Before things fail, read the owner's manual." if I might add, read it before inserting or removing the GPC. @@muhdiversity7409
The design of the retainer has always been awful.
For a heavy auxiliary board, it may be advisable to have the unit in question fixed directly to the metal-work frame of the computer box, and a socket on a flying lead that is then fitted without stress to the heavy auxiliary unit, such as those 4090 video boards.
these new video cards are HEAVY i have no idea why they’d be shipping these Pc’s with the cards in them. And if you’re installing these new cards you gotta install it on the side with a support which is crazy to me .
Glad I bought a 4090 with addled water cooling and no cooling block to save on weight
I selling gaming PCs as a side business. It is absolutely possible to do but your must support the GPU in multiple places. I use foam blocks that I cut to size, never had an issue.
A local company here ships their assembled gaming pcs with expanding foam blocks (wrapped in antistatic plastic film) inside the case supporting the CPU cooler and the GPU. A 2.5 kg GPU hanging from a PCIe slot and one single screw on the bracket. It's an industry practice that definitely should be changed. Companies already started making "armored" PCIe sockets for these super heavy GPUs, maybe they need to start armoring the GPUs next? Or maybe the cases should come with GPU supports as standard or the GPU should be mounted vertically?
_"I have no idea why ..."_
Imagine buying your new Porsche supercar, and having to install the turbo yourself.
System builders like this already claimed insurance from shipping damage so this is just extra income if they can be fixed. Builders are paid either way so they don't care. Sucks for the kids who spend $5k on 4090 gaming PC and have to deal with the incompetence.
Those Asus TUF 4090s do come with a little metal anti-sag thingy, I have one I bought at launch and it's still working
Some vendors send out GPU in a separate box so it doesnt get cracked in transit.
The competent ones.
It leaves a lot of faith on the customer's install skills though..
Thanks!
let's be honest even if you manage to fix them there seems no way to do a reliable repair. The ones broken at the anchors seem more repairable though but still again there is no guarantee the fix would hold if the original board did not hold!
I wonder if some of those cards could be used, (where a structural damage did not involve internal electronic tracings) if they were used remote, or on Vertical adapters?
Never fix PCB cracks/damages. Even at work, these would be designated as scraps. Layered boards like these can have 12V DC on layer 4 going to layer 10 but disconnected by the crack.
@@greenman8 Electronic traces can be fixable find in youtube..
When I bought a pre-built a few years ago the liquid cooling drained onto the PCI-e and took out both the motherboard and graphics card. And that was before the era of huge graphics chards. Sometimes it's just easier to build your own PC.
i am 43 and i do not remember any other graphics card with so many issues since the launch of hardware acceleration
Looks as if a Whole Rack or 3 fell over onto the card and they all broke the same way. Yes, it Can happen in shipping but most system builders account for that and take measures to prevent breakage during shipping. I would bet a coin farming rack came down. Good luck mate.
This makes the most sense
I have an 6900XT that I bought 2 years ago. Even for that older card it is impossible for the PCIe connector to support the weight of the card. The card came with its own support bracket and the manual clearly stated that you should support the card
Not the MBA reference model.
Msi gaming trio? Good choice
@@SC.KINGDOM Powercolor Radeon 16 GB
WOEW!!!!! (Roughly} $38,000.00 worth of video cards ready for the landfill. Only good for spare parts for what, MORE broken 4090's? Some type of mechanical support is definitely needed. Feel sorry for this customer, that's an expensive mistake sending all those at once, he should've sent 'one' to Alex first. They apparently don't understand that these boards are multi layer and almost impossible to repair. Even if you did they'd just break again. There is NO way of making a lasting fix here unless you could acquire brand new unpopulated boards and transferred all the components over to them. There again, NOT feasible. 🤦♂
They get turned into an electronics reclaiming company, they grind them up, extract the gold, then what do you suppose they do with what's left? Do your research. 🤦♂@@80n3y4rd
In germany they fix it .. I do not understand why people say it is not possible.
i am so happy that I stepped out from gamers worlds in 2009 November 1 ...I got up from the computer and said I'm done....i will never forget how mentaly strong I was on that night ....but the idea had been simmering in me for some time....sorry for offtopic but I just remembered the amount of money spent on that addiction
What's your new addiction? 😉
cocaine@@Baneslayer
This is why I have both a support bracket and a support post for my 4090 Gaming Trio. Bracket holds up the outer side, post gives support to the inner side at the far end. It's really stable and I'm not too worried about this issue now.
My 3070 i vertically installed and watercooled i think it's better and the MB is horizontal
thats from prebuilt PCs, where they shipped PCs with GPU installed, GPU cracked during shipping
I am using 2 anti sag brackets for 4090, I installed it with vertically with brackets and after that lifted case to have minimal probability of sag. For me 2000 usd is lot of money, I have to work a lot to get money for nice things.
It needs 2 brackets?!
I have an ex where if the thing doesn't budge then the solution is to apply more force. She's a very intelligent woman but not when it comes to physical things that plug together. I suspect all the damage was done by one person tasked with removing these cards from their motherboard.
Yep
People were saying it was a Gigabyte issue. Now we can see it's from different board makers. I have a 4090 Gaming OC & have not got a crack on my board.
I think Gigabyte have the best sag suport bracket as well
2.5k dollar top quality cards. ( Not form e-bay, most likely pre-built shipping damage )
Good info. I didn't know about this cracking issue. Glad I mount my card vertically. My 4090 is due to be delivered to you in a couple days to have the connector replaced courtesy of CableMod as the connector melted. It was inserted correctly in the GPU and not wiggled or moved at any time. Just melted and hard a hard time removing the connector. They are standing behind the product, but I am sure some blame is due to the design of the GPU having only one plug. I will be watching all your videos.
You need a special warehouse just for the 4090s! The manufacturers haven’t designed these cards very well. What a waste. I’ll stick to my 3080Ti.
Most 4090 is long and thicc, stuff like this will eventually happened even if you use a support stand. The only way to avoid is to use pcie riser that hold the weight on the cooler itself and not on the pcie. Most of it aren't cheap cause some priced at 100-150 USD and even more. If you can afford a 4090 you can also afford that riser.
Wow! Such a heavy card to have only the edge of the board for support. I can see exactly as you mentioned happening during shipping and someone installing one themselves without extreme care taken. And possibly after a system build just moving it around etc. Seems like these heavy boards absolutely have to have additional support and possibly need to go to a liguid cooler so the cooling system can be remote mounted and lines simply connecting to the board? The weight of the heavy fans and heatsinks can then be reduced. Something has to change! 🤯
so if the pcb cracs but the core and vrams and other components likely in good condition, can it be fixed by using a donor card that had core issues but good pcb ?
The glass of tea on his desk: I'm cold, Boss 🥶
My new card never came with a support / kickstand, but after seeing so many videos from this TH-camr I can assure you I will be measuring the dimensions and 3D printing something....
I have a Gigabyte RTX 3080 Aorus Master one of the heaviest chunks of GPU ever produced mounted horizontally without issues. I'm using a support thingy which cost me 10 bucks as manufacturer can't be bothered with such amenities and didn't play soccer with my computer ever.
support is the way to go, my card comes in at over 2kg
‘Those video cards are cracking more than crackheads’ lol i died
Ups and fedex playing soccer with your packages, i died again lmao
If he does watch the videos he should be aware that a decent crack is a no fix and saved himself some postage.
If u send to the germany card and it is not fixable they do not charge you. U can not charge that you done nothing.
Define "done nothing"
4090 don’t come with a brace?
I bought XFX 7900XT and it came with a brace. I did install due to 4090 issues I heard about months ago.
It may be time to reinforce or re-engineer the key/hook. It seems that many of the damage is right there at that location. I doubt if the original pcie engineer imagined there would be so much weight hanging on that slot.
they did it.... you have to mount this type of card vertically
Took a bit of scrolling to find someone mentioning the ATX standard from the 90's is not holding up so well. It's time to move on folks and start using an improved standard.
@@panjak323
No connection.
It's the cooling system that is too heavy.... you switch to water cooling and no more problems
I believe if the card is built against a standard of weight then they should supply Supports that hold them up or warranty them.
Its a simple plastic part that can be 3d printed or in the companies case injection molded. Push off the bottom or attach to the top and extends with a tension knob to stop this problem.
The pci-e slot clip can snag on the card when trying to remove it, and the clip is often hard to get to with bare fingers. I guess a lot of people pull the card out expecting it to come right out, and when it doesn't (because the clip hasn't been pushed back), they wrestle with the card.
Really, the first thing you should do unplug display cable and then release that clip and pull the card out before unplugging any power connectors.
The area that is cracked, why would that area have any PCB tracks? I don't see any good reason to route tracks down there in the "lock" area and back up.
Wow, this make 4090s' look like bad investments. Their burning 12v connector issues do not help either. Wow!
bruh i would legit have a panic attack if i ever cracked anything on a 4090
it'd be interesting to know if any of the cards that passed the initial inspection were fixable.
All of them are fixable. He obviously does not want to deal with cracked boards because it takes time.
I just bought jacks for my video card because of this video. Thanks for the video!
I'd guess those are from a Company that does pre built systems and the cards are breaking during shipping.
Some card makers are now including a support bracket that connects to the stand off pins on the motherboard, apparently they aren't using them.
I'd bet this is rare for a card installed by the end user.
I have asus tuf and i can tell you for sure all of these have sag support in the box. Soo its not asus fail this time
@@Takedown87 I agree. In my opinion it's the builders fault. My Gigabyte 4090 has a bracket that screws into the standoffs on the motherboard, it's super stable but I'd still use some kind of foam to support it along with the bracket if I were going to ship. The nice thing about this type of bracket it keeps the GPU from going down or up. With the type that supports from the bottom I could see the box getting flipped in all directions and breaking the board in the up direction.
i have tuf 4090 that yet to be put in the case, now im worry because most of the card show damage board here are TUF 4090
Tell the customer I need one of his cracked pcb o.o
In germany you must not buy a Gigabyte Card......the warranty is criminal......had many cards from them - never again
its not in germany its with gigabyte problem. Asus have no problems like that. Msi is even worse.
Still using my old Silverstone FT02, cards install vertically, no problem! Edit: Still, aren't all these damages most likely caused by excessive force while under shipping or transportation mounted in a case but not supported internally with foam blocks or other measures? Couldn't it be a lot from a commercial PC builder who sold complete builds but failed in proper packaging techniques and getting a lot of customer return claims?
Alex could you show the many layers of the boards sometime? Seems interesting to me.
I think kids are rough on hings and probably really excited to get their new video card, along with the sag issue.
For the amount they charge I blame the manufacturer 90%. Unless it was made perfectly clear that you need to support card. Then 50/50. Im curious if these cards have damaged any mother boards.
Excellent point !@proudofyourroots9575
PCI -> AGP -> PCIe
Time for the next slot.
all those card looked so clean and brand new... i think when a manufacturer produces a new product, there should be all new design factors controlled ! such a heavy component on the board for thermal control, should not make the Video card so heavy that it breaks when its plugged on the motherboard. since we all know most cards are installed on a case wall, not bottom! and yes ! they know all about it ... these are all new ways to make more money! but what about reputation?! IDK
If these were shipped while installed in the system, that's not the manufacturers fault. A lot of SI's are shipping the video card separately now.
@@-AMD-Ryzen it may be the pre installed shipment problem! but its not one or two! theres a bunch of them! and why we dont see 4050 or 3080 problems!? why all on 4090?! melting connectors, cracked boards! i think as a well known company that produces such heavy duty cards, these kind of issues, should be measured before luanch. and if it happend , it just a responsibility for the company! not to change those cards, but to improve the final build quality ! nor being silent or blame the final user for a design problem or flaw
Curious if Nvdia would take the cards and use the Gpus on a new pcb. I saw videos where cards that had things wrong with the pcb like cracks were sent to a shop where they took the processors off of old pcbs and put them on a new pcb.
it really looks like a design flaw to me. Why does that board finger stick out there? What is it's purpose? Those cards are expensive not only to purchase, but the R & D time to develop. You would think something like this would have shown up during the development process.Also you are right about UPS. I once ordered 25 computers around Christmas time. Who ever assembled them only screwed the hard drives on one side. I had to have 23 of the hard drives replaces. Crappy quality control.
The slot design predates large video cards, and the hook is used to seat and lock the card in place, I am fairly sure that you never see that damage on ANY other add on cards...
I agree, this is a design flaw from the get go. I once had 500 cards (atuc 64 cards) sent to soldering due to a designer use of inadequate connectors.
Cracking unboxing video thanks .. Blame is on the manufacture
Man those 4090' s seem like such a great product...
Wow, this make 4090s' look like bad investments. The burning 12v connector does not help either.
With the cost of the 4090's, I would almost want a small case dedicated, just for it. Instead of using a Huge Heat-sink and Fan combo, put the electronic workings, on an ITX board instead, and use a decent AIO cooler.
It would be awesome to see a matching set of cases from a company like Fractal Design, one being mid tower ATX for the CPU and Storage, the other being an ITX case, for the Video Card itself.
Biggest downside, having to use independent PSUs for each case. (then again, the 4090 is a thirsty card)
@@greenman8 Designed for the buyers who can buy it. And manufacturers doesn't seem to stop there, more weight, more price, more hpwr, more melt, more crack, more power consumption. :D I hope 5000 series comes with even thinner new uhpwr connector, both end on the psu too, so buyers can buy new power supply on one fail at the same time. :D
The 3090 were also a bust too, I had one of mine catch on fire playing New World. Nvidia's engineers are on something.
I wonder if the FR-4 in those boards is of similar quality? Maybe some manufacturers use cheaper/weaker PCB material? PCB material *can* be different in rigidity and strength depending on the fab but it's really hard to know as an end-customer.
4090 reminds me of big heavy computers from the 50s where obscene amounts of electricity were required to power them and they ocupied an entire room.
Too big too heavy too power hungry
why?
because they are ridiculously giant @@MusikAstronaut
Interesting you mention this...since I know for a fact the better industrial and case manufacturers back then already had standardized support at the end of the card, which is still pretty common in server land.
Obscene amounts? 4090 uses between 200-300w under normal operating conditions and whilst doing so, delivers almost 2x more performance per watt than anything that came before. I think you're a bit off on this, bro.
@@tonyd9394 well the phrase you quote is related to early computers. I was reading the other day that Eniac used 174kw. Anyway if 4090 melts its connectors then its using too much. Under heavy load sometimes it spykes to 700w which is as much as some split ACs... ridicoulous
I just bought a Sapphire RX7900XT Pulse and it came with a support brace I don't think it's long enough as the card exceeds the length of the brace by a good 5 inches or so. I might add my old brace for more support so I'll have 2 braces on the card.
Can't blame the manufacturer here. The thickness of the board is dictated by the PCIe standard and the material options are limited by the required number of layers. They could ship them with a big warning label, a support stand or a riser cable though. If your card is over 1000 bucks I would expect some goodies with it that prevent it from instantly self-destructing.
And most do, my 4080 and 4090 came with supports and it stated that they must be used. Unfortunately many people know then manufacturers and we get cracked boards and “idk what happened”
I suspect that with the size of the card and the fear of the burning connector ppl are putting too much pressure on the card either with the cable or while removing and reseating the card, cracking the card.
I think there are many different reasons.
Pre-installed and broken during shipping.
By the customer due to improper handling (forgetting to open the unlocking mechanism).
Because the cards have become so expensive, I suspect that many people are assembling their own PCs and making mistakes.
A fully assembled PC should never be shipped because graphics cards these days have become far too heavy.
20 LB card, no support, sometimes people are so cheap or stupid to just use a stand.
I've seen so many of these 4090 gpus getting cracked right at the same spot by the PciE retention tab. At this point this is screaming manufacturing defect rather than customer misuse. I honestly hope someone brings a class action suit against this.
I feel a bit safer since I ditched the extremely heavy cooler on my 4090 for a waterblock and i'd honestly recommend anyone else with a 4090 to just liquid cool it.
It is customer misuse. People are either clueless or fail to use the support bracket.
Let's face, that design of the board just isn't compatible with the huge 40 series cards. Probably the 30 series as well. Would it be possible to reinforce the card in that area? I don't know but clearly something needs to be done.
Gamers Nexus channel most probably will blame the users.
And they may indeed be correct in doing so, but damage caused by user error on this magnitude stinks of a gross design oversight on the manufacturers end.
This time I believe it’s actually user error. I don’t know any big manufacturers of 4090 who doesn’t provide a support bracket with the cards.
Do you have a list of no-fix scenarios on the site to tell customers prior to them sending in a product? it would be a good service to warn customers first
the company is to blame
Would it still be useful for spare parts, mainly the GPU chip itself and the vrams?
The Gigabytes card actually come with a good brace that goes on the motherboard, if you don't install it I would consider it a user error
I guess those could still be sold for their cores and memory, right?
Can fix it, fixable
02:01 I'm here to see Alex roasting customers. It's so satisfying. 😅
Given that all 19 came from the same customer, I suspect that the actual owner of these 19 RTX 4090s was running a mining farm, and hired someone to either install, re-install and then again reinstall these - because ruptures on some of these show ignorance and no care needed... someone who was paid to "plug computer parts in" / "unplug parts" etc.
If there is a such weakness in the material of the card, the issues would be wide spread and recalls would be issued... So, out of thousands of these sold, 19 do not make it a case for a recall, or to blame manufacturers for "bad" manufacturing quality...
NorthridgeFix to answer your question - buyers. They wanted overpriced Nvidia 4090 cards with massive heatsinks, well they got it.
Instead not support nvidia and NOT buying those cards. I have no remorse for those who didnt get cards refunded. You learned lesson hard way.
Yes it's consumer driven demand, BUT the consumer is hoodwinked by the industry to demand such items. If modern games were properly optimized most people would not require a 4090. Also there are only two companies in the market. In a natural economy, there would be way more competition. But it isn't a free market economy as the rules are set by the global leaders in hardware and software development.
About whose to blame, my two cents is that the card manufacturers and quality control are to blame. They knew about this issue much before the product even came to the market. Adding such a big, heavy heat sink is an obvious risk to anyone with a common sense but they ignored it.
I wouldn't expect any tracks around that hook part of the connector.
You wouldn't but they started doing that lately.
"Great video." Cudos to you.
Now, I would say it is both user and partially manufacturer. I have had a 4090 since October of last year, and I've taken the card out at 2 or 3 times to clean it. I've always inspected my 4090 before and after installing. I use the support bar for it. This is a must weighing 5lbs, I have the Gigabyte gaming oc, and to this day, not one crack.
You just got a subscriber added to your channel.
Support brackets should be included with all the new graphics cards
They are included with most 4090s
@@JimBobm In most but should be in all and not just the 4090s and 7900XTX
The SGI Indigo 2 had massive horizontally mounted video boards like this but they were slotted into a card cage with several inches of solid metal rails attached to the chassis.
6:13 😂😂
😂
Honestly…. How much weight is the pcie designed to hold? Kinda that was past the limit. I have the old Antecedent skeleton, rocks for heavy cards
Imagine if eVGA still made video cards. None of these cracks would have occurred.
I think the whole issue is caused by insanely heavy cards combined with the fact that the part that hooks into PCIe connector is part of PCB. If Asus et al had made that part out of metal, it might have saved these cards. On the other hard, the damage that broke this cards would have then ripped the PCIe connector off the motherboard but maybe the motherboard would have been cheaper to replace than these super expensive GPUs.
I think the other major point to look at with these is that the heatsinks are simply becoming far too big and heavy to be supported by existing pcie hardware. These either need to move to water cooling or dial back the heat and prioritize for efficiency instead of performance at all costs
i think i saw some video few months back where the blame kind of was put on ASUS for the way they designed the PCB too narrow near the lock mechanism while other brands have it wider so its not that easy to bend (crack)
I got a PNY 4080 new from a reputable distributor, it cane with a bracket in the box to help support the card so installed that along with the card not sure if gigabyte or asus supply a bracket with the 4090 but you would think that they do
It's 100% from a cryptofarm. Those cards go like in 6 or 8 on 1 rig and probably one fell.. braking them.
A rack full of those cards fell on the side.
Those cracked ones can only be used as donor for spare parts for other cards.
I do seem to have issues with Video cards getting bigger and heavier for the PCI slots, there is not enough support to keep them from putting strain on those slots. I think companies need to start thinking about that and fix it.