Cooler Master's GX III Gold PSUs Flaunt A Super Durable 12VHPWR Power Connector
Cooler Master has created a new line of PSUs with a more durable 12VHPWR 16-pin power connector that is less prone to melting. The connector has been modified from the top down to improve the cable’s safety including thicker materials, and an improved latching mechanism.
The connector is available on Cooler Master’s GX III series of power supplies, including the 650W, 750W, and 850W models. The improved 12VHPWR connector comes with 25% thicker materials, more contact springs, and 12% higher insertion and withdrawal force. Best of all, the cable comes with a 90-degree angled connector that will reduce cable stress, as well as improve compatibility with bigger graphics cards and smaller cases. Cooler Master says the new cable design results in 5°C lower temps and a 45% reduction in impedance change rate.
Cooler Master’s new line of power supplies will be great for anyone looking for a secure and safe 16-pin power connector for their RTX 40 series graphics card, particularly the RTX 4090. If you are not aware, the 12VHPWR connector has been known to melt on NVIDIA’s more power-hungry graphics cards like the RTX 4090, apparently due to the thinness of the connector itself.
NVIDIA has officially stated that user error is the source of the problem, relating to improper insertions from 16-pin cables/adapters into the graphics card itself. But, we recently discovered that PCI SIG is already developing a revised 16-pin connector that fixes all of the melting issues with the current version, suggesting that the issue was not entirely related to user error. NVIDIA has even gone on to use some of the revised connector’s specifications inside the RTX 4070’s 16-pin connector, making NVIDIA’s original claim even more suspicious.
Nonetheless, it's good to see manufacturers building safer and more advanced versions of the current 12VHPWR connector as we wait for the new revised version to arrive. We cannot confirm if Cooler Master’s new design will completely eliminate all melting risks on 12VHPWR-supported cards, but it should reduce the likelihood of damage at the very least.
The power supplies themselves are 80-Plus Gold-rated units, featuring fully modular cabling and Cybernetics Platinum-certified efficiency — being capable of hitting Titanium level efficiency under 20% load. The units come in an all-black color and feature a honeycomb-style ventilation panel at the front that is responsible for protecting a single 135mm cooling fan that is certified for zero RPM operation. Depending on the wattage, the GX III series comes with up to three PCIe 6+2 pin power connectors, and a single 12VHPWR connector with the improved cable.
