12VHPWR is a Dumpster Fire | Investigation into Contradicting Specs & Corner Cutting

This investigation digs deep into the 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6 specifications, highlighting the contradictory design documents leading to confusion as manufacturers cut corners. We talk about the CableMod recall of its angled adapters, including a deep-dive failure analysis into its solutions that we hired a lab for. We also cover PCIe 6/8-pin melting failures of the past and the differences with 12VHPWR. For this content, we collaborated with Aris of Cybenetics (Hardware Busters), Der8auer, Elmor of Elmor Labs, and others to fact check the research.

With the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 on the horizon, now is a good time to revisit the 12VHPWR standard (and its follow-ups, like 12V-2x6) to try and come to an understanding as to what it all means. This also covers the differences between 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6, alongside other connector standards.

HUGE THANKS to our fact checkers & peer reviewers. Find them below!

Roman (Der8auer): @der8auer

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - 12VHPWR is a Mess
01:54 - Peer Reviewers
03:13 - New Cable Standards
04:25 - CableMod Failure Analysis (vs WireView & Corsair)
11:22 - Conclusions of Failure Analysis (CableMod)
12:55 - Why Connectors Melt (Energy)
16:36 - PCIe 8-Pin Failures & Melting
17:53 - Why 12VHPWR Even Exists
21:25 - NVIDIA's Domineering Strategy
27:01 - CHAOS
38:50 - The Melting, CableMod Edition
47:52 - The Recall
51:18 - Conclusion & What You Should Do

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[GamersNexus]

We've been working hard lately at posting more investigations, documentaries, and deep-dives! Check out some other ones below!
HUGE THANKS to our fact checkers & peer reviewers. Find them below!
Roman (Der8auer): @der8auer

[KnightCDXX]

I like MSI's solution. Their PCIE-5 PSUs come with a 12V2x6 socket and a 12V2x6 cable with yellow pins. Essentially, if you can still see yellow after plugging in, it's not plugged in all the way. You have to push until you can no longer see yellow. Look up A750GL or A850GL.

[darkreaper]

I work as an electrician in germany. I mostly saw this kind of failure in outlets which were used to their maximum capacity at regular intervals. They used normal 230V sockets which are rated for 16A for their forklift chargers. What they didnt know was, that these plugs were actually rated for 10A continuous operation. At first nothing will happen. But everyday the socket was overloaded and got warm during operation. When it cooled down again a little bit of condensation formed inside the connector and the resistance got a little bit higher. This cycle continued for while until the socket failed completely and caught on fire.

So the actual failure was not that the connector was bad, but it got overloaded everyday and the cycle between cold and warm increased the resistance until the failure accured.

I could also imagine that this factor can also come into play with the 12VHPWR.
But I cant understand why they would put such a high load on such a small connector. And the fact that you have to be extra careful to not stress the pins while installing these is a huge design oversight. Just look at an XT60/90 connector and how easy it is to connect those.

Would be nice if they would build some kind of failsafe into the connector such as a PTC thermistor. If that would be implemented in the future you could give the user a message that the connection is bad before the connector melts and shut down the card into a low Power mode.

[dslynx]

I can't believe I just spent an 1 hour watching a video on a connector, but enjoyed every minute.

[JoshTolbertUrbana]

As a hobbyist electronics guy that has built some PSU adapter cables and such for people, I decided to look into the difference between 12VHPWR and PCIe power connectors at a component level.

PCIe 6-pin and 8-pin connectors, as well as ATX power supplies, the extra 4-pin ATX12V board connectors, etc. use Molex Mini-Fit Jr. pins. I got to looking in to what pins are used for 12VHPWR, and someone pointed out that it's Amphenol Minitek PWR 3.0, plus listed some part numbers, so I got to digging.

Looking at the drawings for female pins from each family rated for 16AWG wire, the MiniTek PWR 3.0 pins are smaller in the outside dimensions of the folded-rectangle shape of the female pins, and the pin contact length is shorter than the roughly-equivalent Mini-Fit Jr. female pins used for PCIe and other connectors. Oddly enough, the Amphenol docs list their pins being capable of up to 12.0A per circuit, while Molex lists theirs as up to 9.0A per circuit. I'm sure if I really wanted to dig and do some math, I could come up with the total contact area between the female receptacle and male pin for each family as well, but I think the point is clear by now. The MiniTek PWR 3.0 pins are going to have a smaller contact surface area between the male and female pin than the Mini-Fit Jr. pins even when engaged properly, yet the MiniTek PWR 3.0 pins are rated for a third *more* current than the Mini-Fit Jr. Pins.

Since each pin in the 12VHPWR connector is rated for 9.5A by the PCI-SIG spec, that gives you a total supported power of 684W...In a perfect world. That gives you a 14% safety margin, again in a perfect world. Let's say that one of these six pins drops out due to a poor connection...Then you've got 600W running over five pins. 5*9.5A*12V is 570W, but you're trying to push 600W over those five pins...Congrats, you just put yourself at high risk of thermal runaway.

The safety margin isn't there with the Amphenol pins. IMHO, it would be safer to run a 6x2 Molex Mini-fit Jr arrangement technically out-of-spec than the 6x2 Amphenol MiniTek PWR 3.0 arrangement technically within spec in an improperly-installed plug/receptacle, simply due to the larger contact area with the Mini-Fit Jr. pins. Physics doesn't lie; the lower safety margin of the Amphenol setup puts the designer behind the eight ball right off the hop, then you add a connector that doesn't positively latch? No wonder these things are melting. This was a bad design choice on NVIDIA's part. NVIDIA is 100% counting on a perfect engagement every time between those twelve pins, and even one pin being off puts you out-of-spec according to the PCI-SIG spec. Once the first pin heats up, its resistance goes up...Which is going to drive more current to the lower-resistance pins, causing them to be over-spec even more and heat up as well.

[jwshields]

Incredible video. Absolutely groundbreaking and amazing journalistic work here. A true embodiment of what the SPJ Code of Ethics stands for.
Keep on keeping on, GN.
Much love from Seattle

[knopf]

Awesome to see that my now broken PSU got a spot in the video. Thank you so much for all your work for this community!

[jskemp]

I can’t believe how lucky we are to have GN. I feel like this level of quality, detail, professionalism, is something I never expected. Like this is real journalism, science, and dedication FROM A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!!
Love you Steve and Team ❤

[ActuallyHardcoreOverclocking]

Consumer electronics are required to use lead-free solder. AFAIK the only place you can use leaded solder in mass production is healthcare, aviation and military equipment.

[cardboardpig]

Thanks - I remember when you first posted coverage on the Cablemod adapters I had been having trouble with my PC resetting - that led me to replace the adapter and Cablemod cable with an "official" 8 pin to 12vhpwr cable from Corsair and the problem went away. I had originally planned to replace the entire PSU.

[Night_Hawk_]

These videos are exactly why I'm proud to be a paying supporter/member of this channel!
Thank you Steve for your incredible integrity :)
And also for signing my sweet modmat - I'll be breaking that out again in a week for another PC I'm building for a friend :)

[hexarith]

Excellent video.

One thing that I've been wondering about ever since the 12VHPWR connector was announced is: Why the PCI-SIG didn't switch to a blade type contact connector design. Blade type connectors have been the de-factor industry standard in high current applications for decades, with nominal ratings well over 15A for a single contact and some of them going up to 100A per contact in some of the off-the-shelf designs that have been available for quite some time.

[NeverWinterNightShift]

My first question when I saw the size of the 12VHPWR connect was, "why is it so small?" Why does everything HAVE to be small?

Regardless, please keep up the good work. I look to you guys for information on current industry issues, despite being an enthusiast and not a professional.

[flexiblefelix]

I've had so many people tell me that my own card is all fixed now that the previous discussions had settled. I'm so glad you decided to revisit this Steve because the dialogue needs to be revisited to address this horrible spec. Even the basic nomenclature is completely backwards in the white paper. 😂

[maverickvgc]

If only there already was a connector able to deliver 300W in the same footprint as the PCIe 8pin, widely proven and already in mass production for all modular PSUs...

Wait a minute

[QactisX]

I've watched a ton of Northridge Fix's videos. Alex is a BEAST at microsoldering. I think he said it best. You can say what you want about angle of insertion, debris etc but the point stands it's a connector. You plug it in, it clicks and you don't think about it again until it fries your $2000 graphics card. You shouldn't HAVE to think about how you plug it in at all.

[Arccanos]

Steve, I've been watching you ever since some of your very first videos. I cannot express my gratitude for you and your team's contribution to this industry and journalism as a whole. Keep on keeping on!

[priitmolder]

As I predicted, when this whole 12VHPWR fiasko blew up: its a connector designed and built for the bare minimum of "scraping by" in terms of overhead. I suspect this was a pennies on the dollar decision, making the CHEAPEST possible connector to do the job. They could have taken the old 8pin PCI plug, added the extra 4 and sense wires... and STILL have a way more reliable and redundant design with marginal overhead. Considering theres been literal DECADES of connector development, know-how etc... this just seems LAUGHABLY undercooked (no pun intended). I truly hope who ever designed and signed off on this... does not work at PCI-SIG anymore.

[ModelAaliyahAustin-rr]

Wow. Patrick. In some of the videos I’ve seen him in, he seemed quiet and happy to have a job. This though, grand slam home run of the chronological history of the connector. At times I lost the narrative because I was simply blow away with the forensic detail provided. BRAVO!!

[ThethRonin]

"Did you achieve a 5 degree Celsius reduction in temperature?"
"Yes."
"What did it cost you?"
"Everything."