First RX 9070 XT 12V-2×6 failure reported – Melted connector

ASRock RX 9070 XT Taichi becomes the first known AMD GPU to suffer from a 12V-2×6/12VHPWR failure

I think all PC enthusiasts saw this coming. With the launch of AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 series of graphics cards, some manufacturers opted to use 16-pin (12V-2×6) power cables, a cable that is known to fail/melt in some instances. Now, we have seen our first instance of a 12V-2×6 cable failing when used with a Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card, specifically an ASRock RX 9070 XT Taichi OC. This failure was reported on Reddit by Saving_Opportunity3, the GPU’s owner.

High-end Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs typically use three 8-pin PCIe power cables, while mainstream models use two of these connectors. Simply put, this GPU is not as power hungry as an Nvidia RTX 5080 or RT 5090. The RX 9070 XT doesn’t come close to the power limits of 16-pin 12V-2×6 cables (600W).

Currently, the cause of this power cable failure is unknown. The user of this GPU used a 3x 8-pin to 16-pin power adapter to power their graphics card using an older power supply. This adapter was presumably shipped with their graphics card. The user claims that their power cable had previously changed colour, but has now melted. Some users of Reddit have also questioned the user’s PSU selection.

(ASRock’s Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi OC)

Is this user’s power supply to blame?

Honestly, it’s a bit surprising that this RX 9070 XT user didn’t replace their 12V-2×6 cable after it had changed colour. That alone was a clear sign that something was wrong. This user also claims that their GPU is undamaged, as only their power cable has been damaged. It is possible that this damage would not have occurred with a higher-end PSU. Note that ASROCK recommends an 850W PSU for this graphics card. The user of this GPU had a 700W power supply from Kolink.

You can join the discussion on this 12V-2×6 cable failure on the OC3D Forums.