Intel recommends a “4-spring” 12 VHPWR power plug instead of a “3-dimple” design – VideoCardz.com

Intel wants everyone to use a 4-spring design of 12VHPWR connector

The company has recommendations for high voltage power cable for graphics cards.

Intel recommended 12VHPWR power cord, Source: Intel

With the introduction of the GeForce RTX 40 series, one topic that made headlines for weeks was the design of the new power connector. Some issues were reported regarding the new 12+4-pin layout that allows up to 600W of power to be transmitted to the GPU. Users reported melting power cables and connectors, often rendering their cards useless.

It was later confirmed by the media and NVIDIA that the main issue causing such issues was incorrect cable insertion and lack of space to bend the cable. Needless to say, the cable design itself has proven problematic for some users who would not understand what full insertion really means and how much space is required to use such a cable design. The fact that NVIDIA and board partners were using different adapters, or sometimes even rotating the power connectors on their cards, didn’t make things any easier.

Intel has not developed any consumer graphics cards with the new “12VHPWR” connector, but this is likely to be the case. After all, the cable is part of the ATX 3.0 specifications defined by Intel. However, the company is not idle and Intel engineers are doing their homework. Intel’s recommendations for the 12VHPWR cable suggest using a 4-spring design instead of the 3-dimple design:

It is recommended that the crimp contacts inside the cable plug use the 4-spring design instead of the 3-dimple design (as shown in the figure below), which will increase the contact area for electrical current flow within of the 12VHWPR connector and will reduce the temperature rise of each contact.
—Intel

What might be interesting to note is that Intel’s recommendations follow Igor’sLAB’s findings on the NVIDIA power cord adapter. NVIDIA was reported to have two vendors of the power adapter, with either the 3-dimple version and the 4-spring version, the latter being more common and durable.