PCI-SIG Readies 12V-2×6 PCIe 6.0 Connector To Replace 12VHPWR, Same 600W Design Minus The Melting

wccftech.com:

It looks like the 12VHPWR connector is going to be replaced by a new design known as the 12V-2x6 PCIe 6.0 which has been revealed in PCI-SIG docs by Igor's Lab.

When the first NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards launched with the 12VHPWR connector (16-pin), there were several reports of the power plugs melting out which was later revealed to be a user error. Although cited as a "User Error" the issue stemmed from the improper insertion of the connector within the power plugs. Furthermore, the cable was not supposed to be bent which put stress on the contact points, leading to potential heat-up due to load management.

Documents from PCI-SIG have now been revealed which show that the company has drafted the design for the 12V-2x6 Connector which updates to PCIe Base 6.0 & conforms to the new ATX 3.1 standard. Once again, the connector will be designed to offer power up to 600W & an additional 75W will be available through the PCIe slot. What has changed is that previously, 600W was the entire limit that the GPU can access but with CEM 5.1 specification, this also allocates the PCIe slot power to the GPU.

The good thing about the new 12V-2x6 PCIe 6.0 connector is that it will be compatible with the existing form factor specifications by using a similar design. The design will be easily compatible with higher-end cards 300W+ but 150-300W designs may see a design change. The following are the main highlights of the new connector:

The documents also talk about two specific 12V-2x6 PCIe 6.0 designs and there's a likelihood that they will go with NTK pins instead of Astron. But once again, there seems to be a small portion of these new cables that aren't meant to be bent just like the existing connectors.

For 12VHPWR, the