After Many 12VHPWR Problems, A Solution Is In The Works

The 12VHPWR connector has been the victim of a lot of scrutiny from the various burning issues that have occurred since the release of the RTX 40 series. Now, after much complaining PCI-Sig is working on a new replacement.

New 12VHPWR Replacement

This new replacement connector was shared by igorslab is called 12V-2×6 and is designed as a PCIe 6.0 connection under the new CEM 5.1 specification. This specification is said to be less confusing as it will conform its power measurements the same way as other commonly used form factor specifications, plus will support up to 675W with 600 to the connector and up to 75 on the mainboard as opposed to a maximum of 600 for both with CEM 5.0.

What’s Changed?

One of the key physical changes of this new connector is the shortening of the lower four “sense pins” which ensures that if the cable slips out then the card will shut off before damage can occur. This new redesign will also be compatible with older 12VHPWR headers and current 12VHPWR cables from power supplies. Additionally, this standard will see more standardized testing to ensure that each cable is designed to specification and not at risk of problems.

It’s good to see some change at last for these cables and I hope that once it is in circulation we don’t see any news of burning graphics cards.