The new flagship from NVIDIA, the GeForce RTX 4090, is certainly a monster of power but it also needs a lot of energy to be able to operate at full capacity. To better power the card, the Californian company used the 16-pin connector originally introduced on the RTX 30 series, capable of supplying 600W.
In the box, NVIDIA provides an adapter capable of taking the 'power from four 8-pin PCIe connectors, but, according to the analyzes carried out by Igor Wallossek of Igor's Lab, it is a real active adapter, since it is capable of detecting which of the four 8-pin connectors is connected. Three 8-pin connectors are needed to make the card work, which we remember having a TDP of 450W, but, thanks to a ploy, it is possible to make it up to 600W.
However, the procedure is potentially dangerous as it increases the load per single connector and is therefore absolutely not recommended. Igor, of course, would do anything for science and he certainly didn't hold back. Before proceeding, remember that the 12VHPWR power connector has four small wires, two of which are active and tell the video card whether or not it is safe to boot depending on how many 8-pin connectors are connected.
Photo Credit: Igor's Lab Wallossek has discovered that connecting even just the 2-pin auxiliary connector of a 6 + 2-pin PCIe connector can fool the adapter into believing that a full 8-pin connector is plugged in . In this way, he will think that all four connectors are active and will be able to supply up to 600W. Furthermore, Wallossek, after further analysis, found that it is possible to carry out the same operation by shorting the two wires that act as a sensor to tell the board which connectors are active. Connecting three 8-pin PCIe connectors to supply up to 600W, thus exceeding their maximum recommended load, could be dangerous, as the wires could overheat and even lead to fire.