As you know, NVIDIA is experiencing some problems with its 12V-2×6 connector, which tends to burn and/or melt. Thanks to Der8auer, we know that certain pins can carry a lot of load. As a result, the cable heats up, melting both the cable and the connector. To avoid this, some brands, like FSP, have introduced additional protection. Others have resorted to more far-fetched solutions by directly integrating a fan.
However, on Bilibili, via Guru3D, we discovered a more promising prototype. It is capable of monitoring the electrical current flowing through its pins. If one of them draws too much current, the user is warned!
12V-2×6: an adapter prototype that alerts the user in the event of a problem!
At present, this adapter is only at the prototype stage, but it has a number of interesting features. The first is its ability to monitor the current flowing through the connector’s 12V pins. If too much current flows through one of the pins, the user is warned by an audible alarm. What’s more, it has a micro-USB socket for retrieving monitoring information via an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.
Officially, the standard stipulates a maximum current of 9.5A per pin, but in reality this is far from being the case, as Der8auer points out in its videos. Indeed, the RTX 40 and RTX 50 do not have sufficient safeguards to spread the load over all six 12V pins. It sometimes happens that certain strands take on high currents, sometimes exceeding 20A. It’s in these conditions that we find melted connectors and boards, or even damaged power supplies.
In the meantime, we’re curious to see how far things will go with this prototype, which on paper already looks promising.
