It’s all hotting up in the high-end graphics space. Following reports of melting power cables, Nvidia has stepped in to investigate a potential issue with the already infamous 16-pin 12VHPWR connector.
Delivering up to 600W of juice via a single cable, the 12VHPWR standard is part of the ATX 3.0 spec but is reportedly more fragile than many would have hoped. The general consensus is that the cable could exhibit uneven load across wires when bent at unforgiving angles, increasing the risk of overheating damage.
Team Red has opted to take this opportunity to speak up, with Scott Herkelman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s graphics business unit, confirming the controversial connector will not feature on upcoming Radeon hardware.
“The Radeon RX 6000 series and upcoming RDNA 3 GPUs will not use this power connector,” said Herkelman in a brief Tweet. No mincing of words there.
Though the connector featured on previous-generation RTX 3090 Ti, it is only on mega-fast RTX 4090 that reports of potential problems have emerged. The exact cause is yet to be identified, but AMD has been quick to allay such fears.
Next-generation Radeon graphics products are set to be unveiled next week. Word on the grapevine is RDNA 3 may well have enough ammunition to pose a genuine threat to Nvidia’s dominance. We’ll find out soon enough.
