New 12V Specification Draft Submitted To PCI-SIG

Igor Wallossek, owner and founder of the German tech site, Igor’s Lab, recently discovered a specifications draft of a new 12V power connector. If it goes into mass production, the new specification could end the problems that have plagued NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 owners and their 12VHPWR connector issues.

Based on the draft, the new 12V header is technically a revision of the current 12VHPWR, called the 12V-2×6. The best part about this new connector is that, if we’re reading this right, it will be compatible with older graphics cards that are designed to run with the 12VHPWR header, as well as with any existing adapters.

For that matter, the new 12V power connector would maintain the same number of contact points as the current connector standard. There are differences between the two, obviously: the new specification will have 12 larger contact points, along with four smaller sense pins used for sideband signals. Further, the power limit on the new connector has been increased from 600W to 675W, the additional 75W coming from the PCIe slot that the card is slotted in.

Wallossek also points out that the 12V specification includes specific requirements for wires and cabling. In this case, it could help manufacturers in preventing any unnecessary stress on the crimp contacts, mitigating the possibility of the attached PCIe cable from being bent, stretched, or restricted, upon disconnecting it from the port.

You can read Wallossek’s detailed report to gain a better understanding of the new 12V. In any case, it isn’t clear when the new connectivity standard will be made the standard.

(Source: Igor’s Lab, Techspot)

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