Monday, November 3rd 2025
12V-2×6 Power Connector Burns on Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU
The story of the 12V-2x6 power connector overheating is almost as old as the original 12VHPWR connector itself, and the improved 12V-2x6 still faces issues common to the 12-pin GPU power connector family. Recently, another instance of a burning 12V-2x6 connector was reported, this time on a Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU. A user named u/ProfessionalHost3913 shared images on the r/AMD subreddit showing his Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT with a burned connector end on the GPU. According to the user, the GPU was running at its default settings, with no overclocking or increased power limits, during gaming sessions of Battlefield 6, Cyberpunk 2077, Outerworlds, Minecraft, and others.
The issue appears to arise from powering the GPU with a regular PSU that lacks a native 12V-2x6 output. Instead, the GPU was connected using a 3x8-pin adaptor rather than directly to an ATX 3.1 PSU. These adaptors have been known to cause melted connectors. This problem was first observed in August, highlighting a recurring theme for new builders: to prevent this situation, avoid using last-generation PSUs and opt for an ATX 3.1 PSU design whenever possible to eliminate the need for adaptors. As more companies adopt the 12V-2x6 power source for their GPU designs, gamers might consider investing in ATX 3.1 PSUs to ensure their systems can power future generations of GPUs.
Source:
r/AMD Subreddit
The issue appears to arise from powering the GPU with a regular PSU that lacks a native 12V-2x6 output. Instead, the GPU was connected using a 3x8-pin adaptor rather than directly to an ATX 3.1 PSU. These adaptors have been known to cause melted connectors. This problem was first observed in August, highlighting a recurring theme for new builders: to prevent this situation, avoid using last-generation PSUs and opt for an ATX 3.1 PSU design whenever possible to eliminate the need for adaptors. As more companies adopt the 12V-2x6 power source for their GPU designs, gamers might consider investing in ATX 3.1 PSUs to ensure their systems can power future generations of GPUs.
109 Comments on 12V-2×6 Power Connector Burns on Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU
On a 450-600W card, you cannot hide the fact the card actually requires a bunch of cables because it uses so much power.
12vhpwr is really a marketing move to hide that fact, too. Look how slick and compact it is, must be good, modern, and efficient, right? I have yet to see the first card that actually needs the physical real estate to harbor more than 3x8pin and doesn't have it. High wattage cards automagically are larger.
Its one big act of misleading customers in an environment that has since AI/RT gone straight to insanity. We are still experiencing the so called 'price of RT' here, and we have only just seen the tip of the iceberg, while knowing there's probably 90% more of it under the surface. We just don't want to believe it anymore, because look at the billions invested and planned to invest! Its too big to fail right?
The very definition of a bubble and humanity is on the Titanic atm. And as long as the music is playing and the porn gifs keep coming, all is well.
With a friendly smile,
Fred.
It is the nvidia graphic card power plug. REgardless if it is amd or nvidia graphic card, that nvidia graphic card plug seems another time to be faulty. Regardless how often the same plug was rebrandedd with a different name and a bit of small changes. It stays the same fail design. Especially how it is used. When the plug would drive only a 3 Watt Led W5W Bulb in total there will be most likely no issues.
to me there is no difference between someone designing crappy stuff, or others that decided to use it instead inhouse solutions.
just shows all corporations are greedy to the point of where they make products you technically dont want to buy/use.
Which is correct, but often concealed.
PCI-SIG
With a friendly smile,
Fred.
because the part comes with the card?
the same way you mention the car brand, if they deliver the car with tires that fail prematurely.
?Meanwhile, if you go by steam's dismal card counts, there are 26,400 9070xts out there. That is a failure rate of.....0.007%.
And I feel like this reminder is needed: 8 pins burned too.
Still waiting on hard numbers that 12v2 fails more than the 8 pin BTW.It's on AMD's AIBs for not including load balancing.The connector can handle 600w just fine. That is what it is designed for.
What it CANNOT DO is run 600w, or 300w, or 200w over 1 pin. 1 pin can only safely handle 100w.
"Smoke 'em if ya got 'em, simulate if you don't", hahahaha :D
PCIE 6-pin having 2 12v pins and 8-pin having 3.
If all the power goes to 1 pin, 6-pin only encounters 2x the rated power per pin. 3x for 8-pin. 12vhpwr would encounter 6x.
It's funny that at the same time, 12vhpwr having thinner wires makes it less capable of that.
I don't think we'll see reliable numbers for cable accidents unless a company publishes what's happening in its server farms, so for now we have to use our thinking caps.
Why even try to reinvent the wheel - it's beyond me. :confused:My Seasonic Prime still has about 9 years of warranty left, so that's a big no from me.
And I don't expect any PSU or GPU company in the industry to admit just how many connectors failed because it would hurt their sales.
The connector is too fragile compared to the 8 pin molex PCI-e GPU connector, there's no reason why any full size GPU needs the 12 pin connector, especially when 8 pin PCI-e molex can handle more than 150W per cable.AMD didn't design 12vhwpr or 12v2x6.
It's on Nvidia and Dell for not including load balancing in the design specs.
Though the GPU market is completely fked when the choices we have are risk your GPU turning into a brick because a multi-trillion dollar company wanted to save a few cents on current sensing per pin and thermal fuses, or the company with shitty PR who implied users may not get day 1 updates and had to walk back on it.
Why not improve efficiency instead of churning out 450-600 W cards?
"Oh look, our new 9989 XT Ultra Pro Ti is so fast!" - Yeah, right! :rolleyes:
If hardware makers stayed in the land of sanity with power consumption on their cards, we would have never needed a new connector to replace 3x old ones in the first place.
2x 8-pins should be more than enough for any GPU.