At least one GeForce RTX 4090 owner has taken their fight with Nvidia to the courtroom. According to Justia (opens in new tab), Lucas Genova recently filed a class action lawsuit against Nvidia over the 16-pin power adapter meltdown disaster. The lawsuit states that Genova is suing Nvidia for unjust enrichment, breach of warranty, fraud, and violations of New York’s General Business Law.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a California federal court on Nov. 11, alleges that Nvidia “marketed and sold the RTX 4090 with a defective and dangerous power cable plug and socket, which has rendered consumers’ cards inoperable and poses a serious electrical and fire hazard for each and every purchaser.” Genova seemingly brings the class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all purchasers of the GeForce RTX 4090, one of the best graphics cards on the market.
The complaint narrates that the plaintiff purchased a GeForce RTX 4090 from Best Buy for $1,599.99. He is reportedly “experienced in the installation of computer componentry like graphics cards” and installed the graphics card following best practices. After installation, Genova eventually discovered that his 16-pin power adapter had melted.
The lawsuit says that “thus, Plaintiff and class members have been hit with a costly double-whammy: a premium purchase price (the MSRP is $1,599) for a dangerous product that should not have been sold in its current state.”
The document references user feedback and photographs documented in the dedicated 16-pin adapter thread on Reddit (opens in new tab). At the time of writing, 26 GeForce RTX 4090 owners have come forward, sharing similar experiences with the 16-pin power adapter melting and sometimes damaging the 16-pin power connector on the graphics card.
Nvidia is still investigating the problem with the 16-pin power adapter. The chipmaker recently came forward saying that it didn’t have any further details to share with the public. Nonetheless, Nvidia and its AIB partners have committed to providing expedited RMAs for affected owners.