Stories of NVIDIA’s woes with faulty 12VHPWR connectors are starting to become commonplace at this point, we barely bat an eye when another tale gets added to the tally. Recently the GPU brand came under fire for two cases, one involving an RTX 5080 FE and another with an RTX Pro 6000.
We’ll start with the case of the RTX 5080 FE. Basically, the unlucky customer reported on Reddit about how the retention lock on the card’s 12VHPWR port had snapped off on the very first time they removed the cable from it, despite handling it with ample care. In their chatlog with NVIDIA’s customer service, the latter assured the user that the connector was fine, that the damage was cosmetic, and thus was safe to continue using.
Nvidia Support is Trying to Burn My House Down
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The user disagreed with the evaluation, sending more pictures of the damaged retention lock. At this point, the rep at NVIDIA said that they would escalate the case, but several days later, the GPU maker determined it to be “customer-induced damage” and therefore voided the warranty.
To be clear, the RTX 5080 FE still works and is fully functioning, but without the retention clip on the 12VHPWR, you can imagine the anxiety-inducing stress levels the user must be going through.
The second story about a user-damaged RTX Pro 6000 GPU swings all the way to the other end of the spectrum, and really just highlights what we can only assume to be double standards or a case of bipolar disorder from NVIDIA. The story comes by way of US-based Northridge Fix, who, back in November, posted a video showing the card in question, with its PCIe edge connector broken: it literally snapped in half mid-transport.
Northridge Fix said that they could not get a replacement part from NVIDIA, meaning that the card was technically DOA. After the video went live, the GPU brand reportedly reached out to the repair shop very quickly, saying that they would be willing to replace the entire GPU, and asked that they simply send the broken RTX Pro 6000 back for its team to analyse it.
This really feels like a case of double standards. On one hand, NVIDIA is reluctant to help a general consumer replace a US$1,000 (~RM4,111) – RM6,000 on average in Malaysia, since we don’t get FE cards – while on the other, it doesn’t even flinch at the idea of replacing a GPU that costs US$6,000 (~RM24,665) hot from the oven.
(Source: Tom’s Hardware, Northridge Fix, Reddit)