Nvidia’s lack of action regarding 12V-2×6 melting reports is forcing some to find novel ways to protect against this potential danger. From extra heatsinks to power slots built into the motherboard, many solutions have been developed but none has won the hearts of users.
With melting issues still rearing their ugly head even on the newer RTX 50 Series, which features revised 12V-2×6 connectors that are supposed to be immune, some parties have started making their own solutions in an attempt to solve it or at least reduce its chances. The latest of these is a cable/connector prototype shared on Bilibili that adds some circuitry to the section connecting the graphics card.
Instead of going for an actively cooled solution, this prototype tries to stop the connector from overheating in the first place. It does this by monitoring the current going through each pin to help detect if one wire is oversaturated compared to the others – at least in theory.
The user who shared this design has also mentioned that there are other sensors without going into details, but most importantly, there is an alarm that should go off when detecting an issue to inform the owner to take action. In theory, it’s a great feature that is likely to save your expensive graphics card before it’s too late.
Moreover, the design is expected to become open source when everything is ready so users can tweak it to their liking or perhaps add new features. There is still some work to do on the software side for the time being, possibly regarding the monitoring hysteresis which can be read from this adapter.
Unfortunately, this won’t entirely fix the issue. Some wonder if it can be fixed without completely reengineering the 12V-2×6 connector. A hypothetical new connector would probably feature more pins to spread the load and increase security margins to levels closer to the good old 8-pin. Otherwise, the only solution seems to be through active monitoring and current limiting on a wire-by-wire basis to avoid surcharging just a couple with the full 600W load.
Depending on the wire size in use – 18AWG or 16AWG, the safety factor can range between 1.1 to 1.5 on the 12V-2×6, against 1.9 to 2.5 on the 8-pin. That’s a noticeable difference. Not surprising considering that the 12V-2×6 uses six +12V wires to transmit up to 600W, where you would need four 8-pin – i.e. twelve +12V wires – to carry the same amount.
In any case, these new 12VHPWR/12V-2×6 power connectors have caused a lot of headaches both to graphics card manufacturers and users. We hope a solution is on the horizon, since blaming user error is starting to go out of fashion.
