The 12VHPWR and 12V-2×6 connectors are each designed to unravel an actual downside: delivering a whole lot of watts of energy to high-end GPUs over a single cable relatively than making an attempt to suit a number of 8-pin energy connectors onto these GPUs. In concept, swapping two to 4 8-pin connectors for a single 12V-2×6 or 12VHPWR connector cuts down on the quantity of board house OEMs should reserve for these connectors of their designs and the variety of cables that customers need to snake by way of the within of their gaming PCs.

However whereas Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Arm, and different firms are all PCI-SIG members and all had a hand within the design of the brand new requirements, Nvidia is the one GPU firm to make use of the 12VHPWR and 12V-2×6 connectors in most of its GPUs. AMD and Intel have continued to make use of the 8-pin energy connector, and even a few of Nvidia’s companions have caught with 8-pin connectors for lower-end, lower-power playing cards just like the RTX 4060 and 4070 sequence.

Each of the reported 5090 incidents concerned third-party cables, one from customized PC half producer MODDIY and one included with an FSP energy provide, relatively than the first-party 8-pin adapter that Nvidia provides with GeForce GPUs. It is a lot too early to say whether or not these cables (or Nvidia, or the design of the connector, or the affected customers) prompted the issue or whether or not this was only a coincidence.

We have contacted Nvidia to see whether or not it is conscious of and investigating the experiences and can replace this piece if we obtain a response.