Heatsink-clad 16-pin power adapters highlight everything wrong with the standard

EXDIY’s 16-pin GPU power adapters highlight everything wrong with the standard

The 16-pin GPU power standard (12VHPWR and 12V-2×6) is highly controversial. Now, EZDIY has released 16-pin GPU power adapters with a built-in heatsink (spotted by Tom’s Hardware), and they highlight everything that is wrong with the standard.

With the launch of Nvidia’s RTX 50 series GPUs, we have seen new cases of graphics cards having burned/melted power connectors. Furthermore, we have seen engineers, overclockers, and other experts decry the standard’s “non-existent safety factor,” and the poor power management features of modern GPUs. We have even had our own near misses with 16-pin GPU power cables.

Why do EZDIY’s adapters need heatsinks? Because 16-pin power cables can get dangerously hot. Will this heatsink prevent a potential hardware failure? Who knows. Heat buildup is caused by a poor power connection, which shouldn’t happen in the first place.

With their built-in heatsink and 2oz copper PCBs, EZDIY has done what it can to make their 16-pin GPU power adapters as safe as possible. Will this design prevent potential issues? Probably not. While a heatsink sounds useful, the cause of that heat is the problem that needs to be resolved.

Did we ever need heatsinks or cooling solutions for 8-pin or 6-pin GPU adapters? No. While 16-pin power connectors can carry more power, that is no excuse for poor design. Poor GPU-side load balancing and tiny safety factors have caused today’s melting connector issues. That’s what needs to be fixed. Heatsinks on adapters aren’t a real solution to the 16-pin power problem.

You can join the discussion on EZDIY’s PCIe 5.0 power adapters featuring a heatsink and thermal pad on the OC3D Forums.