Radeon RX 9070 XT 16-Pin connector melts on Sapphire's premium Nitro model

When NVIDIA shifted to the new 16-pin 12VHPWR power connector for the GeForce RTX 40 Series of desktop graphics cards, news of cables melting and GPUs being damaged began appearing online at a steady clip. The revamped 12V-2x6 design, introduced with the GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series refresh and the new GeForce RTX 50 Series, saw a reduction in cases of 'GPU power cables melting'; however, instances still seem to appear as clockwork.

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With only a handful of AMD's new RDNA 4-powered Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards adopting the new power connector, which delivers up to 600W over a single cable, it looks like we've got our second case of a Radeon GPU's power cable melting due to the new cable standard. The GPU in question is the impressive and sleek SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+, a premium model that adopts the new 16-pin power connector via an innovative hidden-cable design.

According to the report by Redditor 'e92justin,' the GPU was connected via a 3 x 8-pin power adapter connected to a 1000W Corsair power supply. Based on all of the investigations into the issue over the years, a faulty connection or improperly inserted cable could be the culprit. However, it's yet another case of the 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6 design power connector for modern GPUs failing, overheating, and effectively melting.

• Read more: ASRock's new 16-pin GPU power cable eliminates the risk of melting cables

The image clearly shows visible damage and burning on four of the pins, which is concerning, given that the 360W GPU is far from the 450W of the RTX 4090 and 600W of the RTX 5090. In fact, the Reddit post has led to the usual response we see from the hardcore PC gaming community regarding the 16-pin power connector design-it's prone to failure. It likely needs a complete redesign with safety, load balancing, and thermal protections in mind.