Many of the best graphics cards currently available utilize the 16-pin (12VHPWR) power connector. Due to several unfortunate incidents involving meltdowns of this connector, numerous manufacturers have introduced products designed to prevent such occurrences. German liquid-cooling specialist Aqua Computer is the most recent brand to enter this market with Ampinel. However, what truly distinguishes Ampinel from other solutions is that it incorporates active current balancing.
The 16-pin power connector meltdowns have been claiming victims since the GeForce RTX 40 series (codenamed Ada Lovelace). A long-standing theory regarding these misfortunes suggests that Nvidia removed load-balancing circuitry from its Ada Lovelace graphics cards, a feature that was present in the previous GeForce RTX 30 series (codenamed Ampere). This omission is one reason why cases of the 16-pin power connector melting have not been reported on GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards. Many industry observers speculate that the design decision was made to reduce production costs.
