Screenshot: YouTube

Corsair has publicly apologized after a “staff member” was caught last week calling sections of reviews of the latest RTX 4090 graphics card – reviews by Nexus and Guru3D gamers – “total bullshit “.

The drama came last week when hugely popular hardware channel Gamers Nexus posted a review (and some benchmarks) of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition. In this video they say that plugging in just three of the board’s four cables (in case your PSU for some reason only has room for three 8-pin connections) will lock you in 100% of performance, and that only by plugging in all four are you allowed to overclock the card. Guru3D’s the review says pretty much the same thing.

Shortly after, Discord comments left by a Corsair staff member went viral. They called the claims by Gamers Nexus and Guru3D “total bullshit” and “misinformation”, while saying that users and “the press” were “confused” about the card’s power and overclocking claims. . The full comments, as shared by Gamers Nexus, read as follows:

QUESTION: Has anyone else seen the misinformation about sense pins and 600w magic unlock from anyone other than GamersNexus and Guru3D or is this just these two websites? I have to throw Nvidia some links showing them how confused the user…and the press…are about their smart pins.

Total bullshit and they don’t even realize it. Yes. The adapter has two sense leads. Yes. The board operates with a single sense wire attached. That’s because it’s a 450W card. This is not because it has the ability to be “unlocked” requiring the second sense wire.

The map just doesn’t know. It’s not smart that way. It only looks for a single sense pin.

In a follow-up video, Gamers Nexus responds to these “bullshit” claims:

EVGA left at the right time: NVIDIA RTX 4090 Founders Deep-Dive (Schlieren, 12-Pin, & Pressure)

While the staff member’s comments weren’t exactly professional, a company rep talking shit privately about members of the media is, as we all bet, nothing new. What compelled Corsair to publicly backtrack on this one, however, was the fact that… Nexus and Guru3D players were right. Up to a point – their claims only apply to Nvidia’s own 4090 cables, not those made by third parties like ASUS or Corsair, which may explain the confusion here – but technically correct is still correct.

All of this prompted Corsair to post a formal apology on the company’s social media, which goes so far as to call the employee’s comments an “explosion”:

It has come to our attention that a Corsair staff member recently made inflammatory and incorrect comments regarding Gamers Nexus and Guru3D’s understanding of the Nvidia RTX 4090 power connector.

These comments do not represent Corsair as a company, and we regret both the form and content of the individual’s outrage.

We have worked with Gamers Nexus and Guru3D for many years and both hold ourselves in high regard in terms of professional conduct and technical ability.

We unreservedly apologize for the inappropriate conduct of our employee and will take steps internally to remind our team of the high standards we hold for them when interacting with the media and end users.

For their part, the Gamers Nexus have accepted the apology, and are ready to “move forward”:

EIC Hilbert Hagedoorn from Guru3D said“Guys, it’s the web; everyone has opinions. He was wrong, he apologizes, and for me, that’s the end of this story.

It’s very funny to me that these companies keep taking pictures on Gamers Nexus when their videos turn out to be exactly right! If you’re more technical and want a more detailed explanation of what exactly led to all of this – it’s really a small detail in the grand scheme of things –the best summary I found is here.