AMD: We’re Not Using 12VHPWR Connector on Upcoming Radeon GPUs

AMD’s upcoming Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards will be arriving without the controversial 12VHPWR connector that Nvidia has adopted for its own RTX 4090 product. 

An AMD executive confirmed the news on Tuesday after two users encountered the 12VHPWR connector frying while gaming on the Nvidia GPU. 

“The Radeon RX 6000 series and upcoming RDNA 3 GPUs will not use this power connector,” said Scott Herkelman, AMD’s General Manager for the Radeon group, in a tweet(Opens in a new window). 

Tweet(Opens in a new window)

That’s good news for anyone worried about the 12VHPWR posing a fire hazard. So far, only two users on Reddit have reported the connector overheating, which resulted in some melting to the plastic pins. Nevertheless, the industry group PCI-SIG and the company CableMod have both warned a 12VHPWR adapter can cause thermal problems if the cabling is bent near the connectors when installed on a graphics card. 

(Credit: CableMod)

Thus, it may be crucial for buyers of the RTX 4090 to install the connector properly, especially when using any existing ATX 2.0 power supplies. But for now, Nvidia has remained mum on the potential overheating problem. The company has only said it’s investigating the user reports about the 12VHPWR adapters frying. 

AMD’s Herkelman posted the tweet in response to PC hardware expert Kyle Bennett reporting that none of the AMD-branded Radeon RX7 7000 GPUs will feature the 12VHPWR connector, which is a single cable that feeds energy over 16-pins. Instead, rumors(Opens in a new window) suggest the AMD’s upcoming graphics cards will use three 8-pin connectors to receive power. 

Team Red plans on revealing more about the Radeon RX 7000 GPUs with an event on Nov. 3. So stay tuned for our coverage to learn more.