Last year, MSI introduced a novel solution to fix the purported “user error” factor for the 12V-2×6 connector by highlighting the exposed part in bright colors. On paper, if you don’t see the bright colors when inserted into the GPU or PSU, the cable is properly seated. As it turns out, even that doesn’t prevent its cables from getting burned.
MSI 12V-2×6 Cable Burned
This incident in particular started from a “DisplayPort not connected” message, according to Reddit user VersauteGurke – much troubleshooting and contacting NVIDIA’s support later, it was found out the MSI 12V-2×6 cable used to connect the Corsair HX1500i power supply to the rest of the PC ended up with visible burn marks on the bright yellow connector.
Perhaps luckily, this user’s PC remained mostly intact, as the 12V-2×6 receptacle on the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 GAMING X TRIO card didn’t end up melting. It is likely that the GPU escaped unscathed here as the cable took the brunt of the damage (that might’ve explained the DisplayPort message), which would otherwise turn the MSI GPU into a very expensive paperweight.
There are several factors in play for 12V-2×6’s apparent instability. Chief among them is the huge power requirements of the flagship NVIDIA GPUs and insufficient safety margins built into the connector – besides that, most RTX 5090 cards today lack the circuitry to load-balance each of the six power pins, which are only rated for slightly over 9 amps each. Rare examples like ASUS’s ROG Astral series feature some level of monitoring to alert users upon detecting excessive loads, though it doesn’t prevent the issue from developing in the first place.
Pokdepinion: Lucky escape, that one.
