Just over 18 months ago, Intel launched their significantly revised ATX v3.0 power supply standard, and with it, the 600 Watt-capable 12VHPWR cable to power video cards and other high-drain add-in cards. The release of the standard came with a lot of fanfare and excitement – the industry was preparing for a future where even flagship video cards could go back to being powered by a single cable – but shortly after, things became exciting again for all the wrong reasons.
The new 12VHPWR connector proved to be less forgiving of poor connections between cables and devices than envisioned. With hundreds of watts flowing through the relatively small pins – and critically, insufficient means to detect a poor connection – a bad connection could result in a thermal runaway scenario, i.e. a melted connector. And while the issue was an edge case overall, affecting a fraction of a fraction of systems, even a fraction is too much when you're starting from millions of PCs, never mind the unhappy customers with broken video cards.
So the PC industry is taking a mulligan on the matter, quickly revising the ATX specification and the 12VHPWR connector to fix their design flaws. In its place we have the new ATX v.3.1 power supply specification, as well as the associated 12V-2×6 connector, the combination of which are intended to serve the same goals, but with far less of a chance of errant electricity causing damage.
