Why it issues: The 16-pin 12VHPWR energy cables for Nvidia’s current graphics playing cards have been controversial since customers started reporting melting adapter plugs late final yr. The corporate quietly upgraded to a brand new specification this summer time, and up to date assessments recommend the newest commonplace is considerably safer.
HardwareBusters and energy cable producer Linwell lately posted optimistic security take a look at outcomes for the brand new 12V-2×6 headers that at the moment are commonplace in Nvidia RTX 4000 graphics playing cards. Customers nervous about burning or melting cables must be notably happy to be taught that the up to date connectors are protected even when improperly connected.
The Peripheral Element Interconnect Particular Curiosity Group (PCI-SIG) launched the brand new specification in July after dozens of RTX 4090 homeowners complained that the GPU’s 16-pin 12VHPWR energy connectors melted or burned after a number of months. Nvidia’s investigation blamed the issue on customers who did not securely join their cables, however others suspected poorly manufactured adapters. In any case, the graphics card firm switched to the 12V-2×6 revision quickly after its introduction.
HardwareBusters confirmed Linwell – which provides energy cables for Asus {hardware} – testing the brand new commonplace underneath 55 Amps for round quarter-hour. Thermal scanners persistently measured the connector’s temperatures beneath 46 levels Celsius all through the trial.
Linwell then ran a second take a look at after intentionally bending the cables and improperly connecting them to duplicate the circumstances Nvidia suspects broken many RTX 4090s. Nonetheless, the temperature remained beneath 41 levels, nowhere close to sizzling sufficient to burn or soften. HardwareBusters credit the brand new, extra conductive pins with minimizing resistance, even underneath excessive energy masses.
Up to now, customers have not reported broken 12V-2×6 plugs, so they seem safer than the unique RTX 4000 sequence connectors. Clients searching for Ada Lovelace GPUs ought to verify that they’ve the H++ marker on the highest of the ability connector fairly than the outdated H+ identifier.
Customers with legacy fashions who cannot afford to change their playing cards ought to change to ATX 3.0 energy provides as a substitute of utilizing adapters to attach 16-pin 12VHPWR plugs into ATX 2.0 PSUs. The newer PSUs could also be costlier, however they’re cheaper than probably changing a broken GPU.
In the meantime, AMD’s newest RDNA 3 graphics playing cards do not use 12VHPWR – a distinction the corporate has used to poke enjoyable at Crew Inexperienced. Nevertheless, Asus may get the final snort because it considers abandoning graphics card energy cables altogether after demonstrating a GPU design that includes a PCIe energy connector that may ship no less than 600W. Cableless RTX 4070 revisions, which require new motherboards, ought to start delivery both late this yr or in early 2024.