4060 Ti graphics card catches fire and melts like an ice cream — user claims they were using it for simple Adobe work and PUBG

A South Korean gamer says that their two-year-old RTX 4060 Ti reportedly caught fire and melted while being used for gaming. According to their post on Quasar Zone [machine translated], the GPU wasn’t overclocked, and they weren’t using it for anything heavy. They primarily used their computer for simple tasks on Adobe, and the most demanding game they played was PUBG. Although high-powered Nvidia GPUs like the RTX 5090 and 5080 with their 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6 power connectors were known for melting, lower-powered graphics cards like the RTX 4060 Ti are not prone to this issue.

“I’d been using it for about two years, and suddenly, while gaming, the computer shut off. I thought, “What’s going on?” and pressed the power button to turn it back on. Smoke started coming out and then flames burst out — I quickly unplugged everything, turned off the power, and disassembled the PC,” said the anonymous user. They also added, “About three months ago, I was in a rush for work and called a repair shop, expecting to get ripped off. They replaced the motherboard, and the computer started to work again. Since I was in a hurry, I accepted the refurbished unit they offered — now I’m wondering if this was a motherboard issue.”

Apparently, the user had an issue with their computer and had their motherboard replaced with a refurbished one a few months before this incident. They now suspect that the GPU bursting into flames was caused by the replacement, although it’s unlikely to happen. The damage to the motherboard shows burn marks on the backside, near one of the screws that secures the heat sink on the GPU. There’s also a massive melt pattern near where the LR22 inductors used for the GPU’s voltage regulation are placed. You can see their location in 4060 Ti teardown videos, and the damage seen in the photographs indicates that the fire was likely caused by a VRM failure.

The user said that they’d sent their computer back to the repair shop to be looked at, especially since the motherboard was still in warranty. However, given that the damage was on the GPU, they’re worried that it might not be covered by that.

This is such an unfortunate and potentially dangerous incident, and one that we did not expect, given that the GPU wasn’t even a high-powered one. One commenter suggested that the screw with the most damage might have been over-torqued during manufacture, resulting in a short that led to the failure of the VRMs. However, this is pretty unlikely, especially since the GPU has been in use for a couple of years without any issues. Although the GPU did not come from an international brand like Asus or Gigabyte, comments said that Emtek was a decent South Korean GPU brand.

We hope that this is an isolated case and that the GPU manufacturer addresses the issue quickly. After all, with many gamers rocking this GPU in their systems, it’s going to be a disaster if these start going up in flames during regular use.

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