The saga of the 12VHPWR connector, an up to date 12+4 energy rail for PCIe 5.0 graphics card designs, rolls on. As you might recall, the PCI-SIG has been engaged on a tweaked version of the connection called 12V-6×6 (simply rolls off the tongue, don’t it?) that addresses a number of the obvious points with incomplete and probably unsafe connections. Though the spec is a protracted, lengthy away from being finalized, some customers suppose they’ve noticed the up to date connectors on Nvidia RTX 4070 playing cards within the wild, and now you may add the RTX 4090 to the listing.

A Reddit user going by “prackprackprack” intently inspecting their new RTX 4090 Founder’s Edition (the first-party model of the GPU made and bought immediately from Nvidia) thinks they’re seeing the shortened connector pins first revealed by Igor’s Lab. The submit (noticed by Tom’s Hardware) isn’t precisely scientific, however upon informal examination, it positive does appear to be the pins are shorter than those on the usual 12VHPWR connections we’ve seen over the past 12 months. That small tweak in bodily design means the connection should be extra totally and securely inserted to guarantee a secure connection, and the cardboard will (presumably) fail to energy up if it’s solely partially inserted. The connection has the identical 600-watt most because the older design.

Actual instances of GPU or energy provide injury from overheating or melting 12VHPWR have been relatively few, however they’re frequent and constant sufficient to be regarding, particularly when homeowners are spending $1,000 or extra on the most recent and biggest graphics card. So far Nvidia hasn’t mentioned something about making an attempt out the up to date 12V-6×6 design or implementing the software program adjustments that go together with the tweaked {hardware}. No third-party playing cards from producers like Gigabyte or MSI have been noticed with the adjusted connection.

As a member of the PCI-SIG, it’s not stunning that Nvidia would work on the 12V-6×6 connector lengthy earlier than it’s finalized. But the corporate should be very assured in its efficacy — or extraordinarily involved concerning the points with the 12VHPWR — if it’s already putting in them in playing cards bought to retail clients.