Nvidia says melting power connectors are a thing of the past

Nvidia has expressed confidence that the infamous melting issues with the 12VHPWR power connectors, which plagued some RTX 40-series GPUs, will not recur with its next-generation RTX 50-series lineup.

As reported by QuasarZone, during the Nvidia RTX AI Day 2025 event in South Korea, Nvidia representatives assured attendees that the overheating and melting issues experienced with the RTX 4090’s 12VHPWR connector have been resolved in the RTX 50 series. “We don’t expect that to happen with the RTX 50 series. We made some changes to the connector to respond to the issue at the time, and we know that it is not happening now, about two years later,” said an Nvidia representative.

The 12VHPWR connector, also known as the PCIe 5.0 16-pin power connector, first debuted with the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPUs. While it offered compactness and support for high power delivery of up to 600W, it quickly became controversial due to reports of overheating and melting GPUs. Investigations revealed that improper connector seating was a primary cause of these issues. Nvidia and its partners implemented guidelines to ensure proper usage, but user concerns persisted.

Eventually, minor tweaks were implemented to introduce the 12V-2×6 connector. The new connector has the same layout and design as the 12VHPWR, but the smaller sensing pins were shortened by 0.1mm, while the conducting terminals extended by 0.15mm. These adjustments are said to enhance the cable’s ability to establish a secure connection, ensuring a safe and reliable power delivery. It is also backwards compatible with 12VHPWR, which mitigates the need for newer cables.

For the upcoming RTX 50-series GPUs, which have increased TGPs of up to 575W for the RTX 5090, Nvidia claims to have taken proactive steps to eliminate these issues. While we take Nvidia’s word on that, we would suggest using modern PSUs compliant with the ATX 3.1 standard, which includes native support for the newer 12V-2×6 connector.