When Nvidia launched the RTX 4090, the card was almost universally praised for the performance boost it offered while also not being much more expensive than its predecessor, the RTX 3090. In fact, the 4090 is probably the most recommended card out of all the other top cards. -end RTX 40 GPUs.

The RTX 4080 16GB was also launched around the same time and while the press had no complaints about it, such as those related to VRAM or other key hardware specs, both premium 40-series GPUs had one major issue that definitely made it hard to recommend them without a doubt. This was due to reports of the 12VHPWR 16-pin PCIe 5.0 connectors that powered these cards melting, burning and frying.

Testing and in-depth investigation revealed that improper contact and connection between the pins and the power socket was causing this and it scared off a lot of potential buyers of these GPUs, as it was apparently much more difficult to ensure that the power connector was securely inserted properly and safely in place. The issue created so much buzz that AMD used it to positively market its own RX 7900 series cards as they don’t come with the new connector and instead carry traditional 8-pins. While such reports were first based mostly on melting on the GPU side, earlier this year, a case of melting on the PSU side was also found.

Workarounds were offered and one of them was by MSI, where the vendor offered a simple but effective solution with bright yellow 16-pin power connectors that would not be visible to the user once the connector is properly seated. However, this does not solve the potential cause of the problem and is only a workaround that still relies on the user being careful and attentive when connecting the PSU cables.

Hardware Busters released a video today showing a new breakthrough 12V-2×6 PCIe 12VHPWR connector that appears to be performing almost miraculously, relatively speaking, as it performs within spec even when it’s not seated properly.

As you can see in the pictures above (click them to zoom in), when load testing a 12V-2×6 cable using a Jartul JT6322A (1200W/150V/240A) DC electronic unit, the cable shows similar specifications and is able to hold almost 645W of load both times , although one of them was not inserted properly. If you couldn’t guess which one, the one on the right is the correct answer.

Source and images: Hardware Buster (YouTube)