Intel Recommends 4 Spring 12VHPWR Adapters Supplied By NTK

With the GeForce RTX 40 series launch, Nvidia introduced a new PCIe connector. The new 12VHPWR power connector only requires a cable to manage up to 600W of power to the graphics card. 

Nvidia was quite confident with its new 12VHPWR connector though the new PCIe connector was not as reliable as the company had hoped. After the new GeForce RTX 40 series launch, many cases of melting power connectors were reported, making the card useless within weeks.

After much research, Nvidia confirmed the leading case of the melting 12VHPWR connector issue. According to Nvidia, user error was the main reason behind melting 12VHPWR connectors.

Being an entirely new connector, users would make the mistake of not inserting the 12VHPWR adapter fully into the connector, causing an imbalance of load on the contacts of the 12VHPWR connector pins, causing it to melt.

Intel is now finally ready to give its opinion on the next design of the 12VHPWR connector. The Intel Arc series does not support the 12VHPWR connector, though it won’t happen for long.

Intel also defines the ATX 3.0 specifications, and the 12VHPWR connector is indeed a part of it, and it seems the company is finally ready to take matters into its own hands.

Intel made a statement saying.

“Crimp Contacts inside of the cable plug are recommended to use the 4 Spring design instead of 3 dimple design (as shown in below figure) which will increase the contact area for electrical current flow inside the 12VHWPR connector and reduce the temperature rise of each contact.”

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On the other side, Igor’s Lab also confirmed that there were two different suppliers for the 12VHWPR adapter named Astron and NTK. The Astron uses the 3-dimple connector, while NTK uses the 4-spring connector that Intel and Igor’s Lab recommended.

As per Igor’s testing, the NTK 12VHPWR connector is equipped with a better latching system that relies on one spring contact compared to the two-spring contact design that Astron is using. Currently, it’s hard to know which AIB manufacturer is using which supplier for the adapter. Still, we know that Gigabyte and Zotac use 12VHPWR adapters supplied By NTK based on a 4-spring design.