As Germany-based publication HardwareLuxx’s editor Andreas Schilling puts it, the 12V-2×6 connector “will forever remain a weak point” of RTX 50 series GPUs – this is evidenced with the thermal imaging showing a scorching 150-plus degrees on the power connector connecting to his water-cooled RTX 5090 graphics card.
Overheating 12V-2×6 Connectors, Again
In his X (Twitter) post, the reviewer said his thermal imaging camera “picked up a hotspot at the PSU”, which shows a glowing white color that indicates temperatures in excess of 150°C. That anomaly isn’t a result of loose cables either, as he confirmed the cable and plug are “still in order”, but is overheating regardless (though by the looks of it, still not melting yet). The last sentence in the replies is pretty damning: “I have zero trust in that solution of any kind.”
We have dealt with 12V-2×6 connectors at times, though we have yet to encounter excessively hot temperatures on the cable itself (although we’ve seen temperatures in the high 60s on the connector when the ROG RTX 5090 is under maximum load, and all the cables are still perfectly functional). Still, given several high-profile incidents of melting connectors and seemingly no consistent pattern or a fix thus far, the jury is still very much out there on whether the connector is safe to use.
Currently, while modern NVIDIA cards have fully embraced the new (albeit controversial) connector standard, both Intel and AMD has largely stayed away from the standard – though a small number of AIB variants from Team Red has seen the adoption of new standard. It wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine that the presence of 12V-2×6 connector may be a deal breaker for those looking for GPUs right now, in a time where NVIDIA is struggling to meet demand as AMD Radeon cards are flying off the shelves.
Pokdepinion: That’s a worrying sign for the connector – the longer it takes to fix the more damage it’s likely going to cause.
