NVIDIA has seen a dramatic rise in warranty claims over the past few years, and the numbers are hard to ignore. Over a three-year period, warranty-related costs tied to its discrete graphics cards have increased by roughly 1000%. While that figure sounds alarming, it's worth noting that the increase didn't happen all at once. Instead, it built up steadily across multiple fiscal years, pointing to a broader trend rather than a single isolated issue.

A Sharp Increase In Warranty Costs

Data from Warranty Week highlights just how significant the jump has been.

NVIDIA's warranty payouts rose from around US$81 million in 2024 to a staggering US$894 million in 2025. That's a massive leap in a relatively short period.

For comparison, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported considerably lower figures. Its warranty costs were approximately US$213 million in 2024 and increased to about US$358 million in 2025.

Importantly, these figures are tied specifically to consumer-grade discrete GPUs, not enterprise or data centre products.

Tracing The Timeline Of The Issue

The spike in claims appears to align closely with the release of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 series.

More specifically, early reports began surfacing around the flagship GeForce RTX 4090. Users started reporting issues with the 12VHPWR power connectors, particularly cases where the connectors overheated or even melted under load.

At first, these incidents seemed isolated. But over time, similar reports became more frequent, raising concerns across the PC hardware community.

A Problem That Didn't Fully Go Away

Despite efforts to address the issue, reports continued to appear in the years that followed.

Cases of GPUs failing due to power connector problems weren't limited to just one model. Even cards from earlier generations, such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, were later mentioned in similar discussions.

By 2025, newer high-end models like the GeForce RTX 5090, part of NVIDIA's latest Blackwell lineup, were also linked to connector-related failures. This was particularly notable because NVIDIA had previously indicated that the issue had largely been addressed.

To mitigate risks, the company advised users to rely on official adapters and use high-quality power supply units with dedicated connectors. Even so, the persistence of these reports suggests that the problem has not been entirely eliminated.

Preparing For The Impact

The report also points out that NVIDIA's warranty provisions and cost allocations increased throughout 2025.

This likely reflects a proactive move by the company, anticipating higher claim volumes and setting aside funds accordingly. In other words, NVIDIA appears to have recognised the trend and adjusted its financial planning to accommodate it.

What This Means For Consumers

For users, this situation raises a few practical considerations:

While not every user will encounter these issues, the volume of reported cases suggests it's something the market is paying close attention to.

Final Thoughts

A 1000% increase in warranty claims is not something any company would take lightly, especially in the competitive GPU space.

For NVIDIA, this appears to be a combination of rapid product evolution, high power demands, and real-world usage revealing weaknesses over time. The company has taken steps to address the situation, but the lingering reports show that the issue is not fully behind it yet.

As newer GPU generations continue to push performance boundaries, the balance between power, design, and reliability will remain a critical challenge for the industry.