Monday, July 3rd 2023
12VHPWR Connector Said to be Replaced by 12V-2x6 Connector
According to Igor's Lab, who has gotten their hands on a PCI-SIG draft engineer change notice, it looks like the not entirely uncontroversial 12VHPWR connector won't be long lived. The PCI-SIG is getting ready to replace it with the 12V-2x6 connector, which will be part of the ATX 3.1 spec and the PCI Express 6.0 spec. The new connector doesn't appear to have any major physical changes though, but there have been mechanical modifications, such as the sense pins having been recessed further back, to make sure a proper contact is made before higher power outputs can be requested by the GPU. The good news is that at least in the draft spec, the 12V-2x6 connector will be backwards compatible with 12VHPWR connectors.
One of the bigger changes, at least when it comes to how much power the new connector can deliver, is that there will be new 150 and 300 Watt modes in addition to the 450 and 600 Watt modes for the sense pin detection. The 12V-2x6 connector is rated for at least 9.2 Amps per pin and the new connectors will carry a H++ logo, with th older 12VHPWR connectors getting a H+ logo. The PCI-SIG has also added stricter requirements when it comes to the cable design and quality, which should hopefully prevent some of the issues the 12VHPWR implementations have suffered from. We should find out more details once the PCI-SIG has finalised the 12V-2x6 connector specification. In the meantime, you can hit up the source link for more technical drawings and details.
Source:
Igor's Lab
One of the bigger changes, at least when it comes to how much power the new connector can deliver, is that there will be new 150 and 300 Watt modes in addition to the 450 and 600 Watt modes for the sense pin detection. The 12V-2x6 connector is rated for at least 9.2 Amps per pin and the new connectors will carry a H++ logo, with th older 12VHPWR connectors getting a H+ logo. The PCI-SIG has also added stricter requirements when it comes to the cable design and quality, which should hopefully prevent some of the issues the 12VHPWR implementations have suffered from. We should find out more details once the PCI-SIG has finalised the 12V-2x6 connector specification. In the meantime, you can hit up the source link for more technical drawings and details.
137 Comments on 12VHPWR Connector Said to be Replaced by 12V-2x6 Connector
It's called the XT60 and XT90. (There's others as well)
Commonly used on Drone aircraft, R/C cars, etc.
BTW, before 'things happened behind the scenes' 8-Pin EPS *was* slated to replace PCI-e 8-pin; instead of this 12VHPWR(etc.)
Highly recommended reading, on the topic:
www.igorslab.de/en/nvidias-connector-story-eps-vs-12vhpwr-connector-unfortunately-good-doesnt-always-win-but-evil-does-more-and-more-often-background-information/
For most people, in most cases, SHIFT is a solution looking for a problem. For the 1% of people who are struggling to get a really tight build to work because of cable management, it might be a good solution.
As for pricing, I'm not sure what you're talking about. Both street pricing and corsair.com/uk official website show the SHIFT models actually cheaper than the regular models, and both of them have the same MSRP, but only the SHIFT models are discounted on Corsair's own website. The discounts are entirely unsurprising since so few cases are actually compatible with SHIFT that I suspect inventory turnover is much slower and leads to a lot more unsold stock taking up valuable shelf space.
Wonder how acer did this on my laptop with 4060 :laugh:
ATX also never anticipated that people wouldn't want their systems to be overrun by a tangled mess of cables, hence why chassis designers predominantly moved the PSU to the floor to allow for hiding these. We also got PSU shrouds to further hide cable spaghetti, and PSUs with cables that can be added and detached as needed for the same purpose. The end result is that a modular ATX PSU, on the floor of a chassis, under a PSU shroud, is really difficult to get to if you're trying to add or remove cables; SHIFT attempts to offer a solution to that very real problem. It may not be a problem for many, and it may not be a problem very often, but it is most definitely a problem. All the SHIFT models are showing as OOS for me on Corsair's website. As for pricing, I did pick up the 850W model for a big discount on Black Friday, but the RM series got bigger discounts (for example the SHIFT 850W cost me £120 while the RMe 850W dropped to £80 at one point IIRC).
Of the 10 most recent TPU case reviews, SHIFT is 100% incompatible with four of them, because they don't use an open basement with side access, so there's other stuff or a solid partition next to the SHIFT side of the PSU. Of the six remaining "traditional" basement PSU partition cases reviewed, only four of them are wide enough to accommodate the 50mm cable radius behind the PSU, and these are all new "MAXI" ATX sized cases that sprung up this (RTX 4090) generation and have enough room for 140mm cooling fans above the IO shield because of the super-sized 4090FE and its need for an even wider case to get the 12V HPWR connector into the top edge of the card with it's own stupid bend-radius requirements (otherwise you get melting connectors!). That size/type of case is a very new addition to the case market in general, and the industry has already started to correct it by marketing "smaller" high-end GPUs as a positive feature, and the proliferation of official and third-party right-angle HPWR connectors to reduce the need for 2" of wasted case width.
Don't get me wrong, when SHIFT works, it's a nice-to-have feature and I don't object to it being on the market at all as an additional choice. I'm just being a realist by saying that it's unlikely the wider case market will change to accomodate SHIFT layouts so it's going to remain a niche feature for a few specific scenarios. If anything, the latest slew of cases like the Hyte and it's copycats seem to be moving towards isolating the PSU entirely behind the motherboard in a portrait configuration (011D-style) which usually work worse with SHIFT PSUs than regular PSUs. You're comparing apples to oranges: The cheaper 850e is not the same class of PSU as the SHIFT, which is a rotated RM850X. The RMX series is a more expensive, premium PSU with better capacitors, cooling, PCB design, and better performance to go with the additional cost.
Its plastic (and pretty cheap plastic, too). It wears, it tears, it bends, its part of the material's properties. So you need a connector with greater tolerances = a bigger one. Even with a better connection you're looking at more power through less cable/metal.
Compare the 12VHPWR with Mini-Fit HCS (what's typically used for 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe).
16g for both. Check.
One 12VHPWR gives you twelve conductors, two 6-pin PCIe give you twelve conductors. Check.
12VHPWR 3.0mm terminals are rated at 9.5A each in a 2x6 configuration. Mini-Fit HCS 4.2mm terminals are rated at 10A each in a 2x3 configuration. Uh oh... Wheels are starting to come off the bus.
12VHPWR footprint is 18.85mm x 8.45mm. 6-pin PCIe has a footprint of 13.8 x 10.2mm EACH.
So given everything we know.... 12VHPWR is technically no better at delivering 600W of power than two 6-pin PCIe connectors. ;-)