The first case of a 16-pin connector melting on an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU has been reported on Reddit, once again highlighting the flimsy nature of the new power input method.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs With 16-Pin Also Prone To Melted 16-Pin Power Connectors If Proper Equipment/Installation Method Aren't Used
Well, we have our first report of an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU with a melted 16-pin connector coming in from Reddit. Redditor, Savings_Opportunity3, has become the first victim of this implementation, but it looks like there are several reasons as to why this has happened.
The user was running an ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi OC graphics card, which features a 16-pin power connector. Unlike other Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs which rely on the standard 8-pin connectors, solutions from ASRock & Sapphire use the newer 16-pin 12V-2x6 standard which is meant to be safer, however, as we've seen with the RTX 5090 which uses the same power connector standard, no one is safe if proper equipment or installation methods aren't used.
The issue arose for the user a month ago when, during a motherboard swap, he found out that some pins on the adapter for his Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU were darker than the rest. The card comes with an adapter cable, which features three 8-pin inputs to one 16-pin input. However, just a few hours ago, the same user has now reported that the 16-pin connector had melted.
The Redditor states that this was his 4th plug/unplug cycle, and we have seen from previous reports that adapters are more prone to burning/melting issues than direct 16-pin to 16-pin connectors. The user also didn't show whether the 16-pin plug was connected properly on all ends. He did say that he was running a fairly entry-level PSU from Kolink, and that too a 700W unit. As far as we can tell, Kolink doesn't make an ATX 3.1 PSU, which is the safer standard.
ASRock also recommends a 850W PSU at a minimum for its AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs, so we can see three problems with this case:
- Using an under-wattage PSU with ATX 3.0 certification (700W)
- Relying on a 16-pin adapter cable rather than a 16-pin-to-16-pin connection
- No evidence that the connectors were plugged in properly
So while there may be user error involved, this also goes to show just how many checks are required when using the 16-pin connectors, which wasn't the case with older 8-pin connectors. The plugged in, and it had a better click feedback when the power connectors were plugged in properly.
The good thing is that it seems like only the power adapter side melted, and the user has since invested in a proper ATX 3.1 PSU for his AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU. We should also state that the Radeon RX 9070 XT does consume more power than the RTX 5080, as we have seen in our testing. So a better PSU is definitely required with a higher wattage rating.
Thanks to Sebastian Castellanos for the tip!
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