The 12VHPWR power connector has clearly been the talk of the town. A number of RTX 40s have seen their connectors melt, often linked to poor contact within the connector itself. Now, whose fault is that? The user, for not plugging the connector in properly? PCI-SIG for the cable design? It’s hard to say. In the meantime, a new model is in the works, the 12V-2×6.
12V-2×6, what’s new?
This new connector is actually a revised version of the 12VHPWR. Externally, there are no changes to the number of pins or the overall dimensions of the female or male connector. However, there are some internal changes, notably to the signal pins.
On the female connector, the signal pins have been shortened. On the current connector, these are 4 mm long, while on the new one, they are 3 mm. This reduction in length has been made to improve safety. Otherwise, the current-carrying pins have been slightly lengthened. Their length has been reduced from 4.2 mm to 4.45 mm.
What’s more, this new connector is announced to support boards with a power consumption of up to 675W. This includes the 600W of the connector and the 75W of the motherboard’s PCIe. Until now, it was 600W all-in, motherboard plus power supply. Finally, new modes are supported: 150W and 300W in addition to the current 450W and 600W. Note that each pin is capable of handling up to 9.2 A.
Finally, this 12V-2×6 is backward-compatible with current 12VHPWRs. It will also be part of the ATX 3.1 and PCIe 6.0 features.
