There are two manufacturers of NVIDIA’s 12VHPWR connectors, and you should probably avoid one.
Igor’sLAB is working tirelessly to solve the 12VHPWR “melting” problem already reported by many users. The latest development is a discovery that there are two manufacturers of the official NVIDIA adapter cable and only one has problems so far.
The discovery is the result of a lengthy investigation that involved R&D teams from various board partners and NVIDIA themselves, as Gabriele Gorla (Director of Engineering at NVIDIA) was kind enough to share a few additional details. The company even provided a presentation that explains the differences between the two types of cables.
The official NVIDIA 600W cable that comes with all GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards is said to be made by a company called Astron or NTK, both are Taiwanese companies that compete with each other. Igor found that the NTK cable has a better latching system and uses a spring contact as opposed to Astron’s two spring contact design.
Astron x4 vs NTK x4 12VHPWR connector, Source: Igor’sLAB
Both adapters use the same “tulip” connector design. The NTK connector requires more push-in force.
12VHPWR connector types, Source: Igor’sLAB/NVIDIA
Astron cables are said to have lower durability and higher resistance than NTK cables, which would be measurable with proper equipment after 10 mating cycles. NVIDIA conducts its tests to measure how connection cycles affect resistance, which should not exceed 2 Ohms.
12VHPWR resistance/connect cycles, Source: Igor’sLAB/NVIDIA
Igor is not (yet) pointing the finger at Astron. The conclusion will require testing on a much larger scale than a single reviewer simply can’t do. So Igor is doing the second best thing he can do right now, which is providing a list of known issues, their causes, and possible solutions. This is something that NVIDIA has failed to do so far.
| NVIDIA 12VHPWR Power Adapter Problems and Solutions (Igor’sLAB) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Problem | Cause | The solution |
| Ill-fitting grip, direct connection not possible |
injection molding, Prominent casting residues |
Light chamfering with a cutter, do not use contact grease! |
| Ill-fitting connector, no snap at the end |
injection molding, Protruding molding residues, Bad locking mechanism |
Visual inspection by the user |
| hot contacts, Fusion connector (1) |
Curved tulip contact by angled insert or then move the connector |
Cable or adapter replacement |
| hot contacts, Fusion connector (2) |
Bend the adapter or power cable |
Cable or adapter replacement |
| hot contacts, Fusion connector (3) |
All relevant causes | Use ATX3 power supplies with native 12VHPWR connector or spare power cables (set in each case) |
| Insufficient gripping surface for the correct insertion into the terminus |
cooler design | None |
| Insufficient gripping surface for correct loosening of the Connection without bending |
cooler design | None |
| Hot leads between adapter and power supply |
Adapter with broken solder joints or broken cable |
Exchange adapter |
| Hot plugs/sockets on the power side |
PSU design too weak | Replace the power supply |
What’s interesting to note is that NVIDIA would use a dual 8-pin to 16-pin power adapter for its upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (so a third variant after 3×8 pin for 4080 and 4×8 pin for 4090 ). However, in this case, NVIDIA will not use Astron as the cable provider, confirms Igor.
Source: Igor’sLAB
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