WTF?! Power supply manufacturer Seasonic has a surprising recommendation for those worried about issues with Nvidia's graphics cards using 12VHPWR or 12V-2x6 power cables: use a hairdryer to gently bend the cable before installing it in your case.

The burning and melting issues found in the RTX 40-series graphics cards, mostly the RTX 4090, are well documented. It's recommended that their power cables employ 35mm of space at the point of connection before they bend, thereby ensuring a secure fit, but that isn't always easy in those instances where a card is close to a case's side panel.

Seasonic has offered several recommendations for buyers of its power supplies when connecting them to Lovelace graphics cards. On the company's support page, it suggests bending the 12VHPWR or newer 12V-2x6 power cable using a gentle heat source such as a hairdryer. It also suggests doing this outside of the case prior to installing the cable, which should be done very carefully.

Many RTX 4090 owners bought one of CableMod's 12VHPWR angled adapters to address the poor connection issues. Unfortunately for those customers, the company recently announced a voluntary recall of its CableMod 12VHPWR 90-degree and 180-degree angled adapters (V1.0 and V1.1) due to a risk of the male connector coming loose and overheating/melting the GPU.

The number of RTX 4090 cards affected by the 12VHPWR connector is said to be considerable. Repair shop NorthridgeFix says it receives hundreds of the flagship cards, which have an MSRP of $1,599, every single month due to damage caused by the connector issue. Nvidia initially claimed the problem was minor and there had only been around 50 cases worldwide. It also tried to put the blame on users, claiming they were failing to plug the cables in correctly. If only they had used a hairdryer first.

Earlier this year, MSI offered a surprisingly simple yet effective answer to the melting GPU problem by adding brightly colored connection tips. If users can no longer see any color once a cable is inserted, it means the connection is solid. Gigabyte, meanwhile, "cut out" a piece of the RTX 4090 (above) to hide the 16-pin connection and change the direction it faces, allowing plenty of space for cables.