The saga of the 12VHPWR connector, an up to date 12+4 energy rail for PCIe 5.0 graphics card designs, rolls on. As you could recall, the PCI-SIG has been engaged on a tweaked model of the connection known as 12V-6×6 (simply rolls off the tongue, don’t it?) that addresses among the obvious points with incomplete and probably unsafe connections. Although the spec is an extended, lengthy away from being finalized, some customers suppose they’ve noticed the up to date connectors on Nvidia RTX 4070 playing cards within the wild, and now you’ll be able to add the RTX 4090 to the checklist.
A Reddit consumer going by “prackprackprack” intently inspecting their new RTX 4090 Founder’s Version (the first-party model of the GPU made and offered immediately from Nvidia) thinks they’re seeing the shortened connector pins first revealed by Igor’s Lab. The put up (noticed by Tom’s {Hardware}) isn’t precisely scientific, however upon informal examination, it certain does appear to be the pins are shorter than those on the usual 12VHPWR connections we’ve seen during the last yr. That small tweak in bodily design means the connection should be extra totally and securely inserted to guarantee a secure connection, and the cardboard will (presumably) fail to energy up if it’s solely partially inserted. The connection has the identical 600-watt most because the older design.
Precise instances of GPU or energy provide harm from overheating or melting 12VHPWR have been comparatively few, however they’re frequent and constant sufficient to be regarding, particularly when house owners are spending $1,000 or extra on the newest and best graphics card. Thus far Nvidia hasn’t stated something about attempting out the up to date 12V-6×6 design or implementing the software program modifications that go together with the tweaked {hardware}. No third-party playing cards from producers like Gigabyte or MSI have been noticed with the adjusted connection.
As a member of the PCI-SIG, it’s not shocking that Nvidia would work on the 12V-6×6 connector lengthy earlier than it’s finalized. However the firm should be very assured in its efficacy — or extraordinarily involved in regards to the points with the 12VHPWR — if it’s already putting in them in playing cards offered to retail prospects.
