Prolific restore expert and YouTuber NorthbridgeFix acquired 19 GeForce RTX 4090 graphics taking part in playing cards from a single purchaser. Inside the ensuing video, he outlines that numerous the graphics taking part in playing cards have cracked PCBs near the PCIe card’s retention finger. Although the availability of the harm with these explicit taking part in playing cards is just not readily apparent, the problem with PCB cracking on new, heavy GPUs has become further widespread.
This multitude of cracked graphics card PCBs is puzzling. NorthBridgeFix has seen this type of problem on this house sooner than, nonetheless getting so many in a batch raised questions. Who was in cost? NorthbridgeFix said it might presumably be the particular person, producer, designer, or provides. He moreover contemplated whether or not or not this batch of faulty Asus and Gigabyte taking part in playing cards (cracks present on Asus boards solely) might presumably be from a system maker who didn’t embrace a GPU help. One different danger was that PC packages shipped with put in RTX 4090 graphics taking part in playing cards and have been dealt with roughly in transit.
The GeForce RTX 4090 is a beefy and complex graphics card. Typically, its PCB is made with 12-15 layers, each web internet hosting a complicated array {{of electrical}} traces. As Alex went through the 19 packing containers one after the opposite, as rapidly as he observed a crack throughout the PCB, he referred to it as a “no restore” and put it to 1 side. Cracked PCBs with so many layers are potential to revive, nonetheless doing so makes no sense by means of worth. Prospects submitting these taking part in playing cards will possible be charged a bench cost (for coping with) plus postage and packing.
Naturally, Alex puzzled in regards to the provide of these 19 GPUs and the way in which a single purchaser had acquired them. NorthbridgeFix assumed the client might have bought them on eBay, hoping for a simple restore, after which to advertise on at income.
To the credit score rating of the proprietor of the 19 broken GPUs, none had completely different seen harm or burn marks, which usually is a typical problem with RTX 4090’s 12VHPWR connectors all through producers.
There’s not one thing incorrect with selling graphics taking part in playing cards which have damaged PCBs, like these tossed into the ‘no restore’ pile by NorthbridgeFix, as long as the define of the difficulty is apparent to the potential purchaser. These ‘ineffective taking part in playing cards’ can nonetheless be used as donor boards for quite a few components: shrouds, followers, VRAM, GPUs, and further. It’s good to recycle the place potential.
Can These PCB Cracks Be Mounted?
The time and effort (and thus expense) wished to revive the cracked traces in various PCB layers simply isn’t worthwhile. However, in a single different NorthbridgeFix video from earlier this yr, you see the arduous job of fixing an Asus GeForce graphics card that had broken near the retention finger.
Fiberglass is often used as a filling and tends to be stronger than copper. However, any subsequent use, arrange, and elimination of this repaired card will needs to be accomplished with extreme care.
Has this disadvantage been occurring for prolonged?
Now we have now reported on the type of GPU PCB cracking, usually affecting large and heavy graphics taking part in playing cards, beforehand. Expert restore technicians like Louis Rossman, NorthbridgeFix, and others have featured these faults and repairs for months. One different occasion throughout the data this yr appeared to center on PCB design issues with Gigabyte taking part in playing cards.