ASRock’s new L-shaped PCIe 12V-2x6 cable with an NTC sensor aims to eliminate melting

There have been several cases of Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs being damaged either at the PSU end or the GPU end and they typically accuse the new 12VHPWR design. Following the first Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU power cable melting, ASRock has released a new cable that aims to provide a greater level of protection against such hardware damage. The 12V-2x6 cable has an L-shaped connector and a built in NTC sensor.

AMD stayed away from the new design and the reference design is based on the older 8-pin connector. However, some board partners like ASRock have switched to the relatively newer 12VHPWR connector. While this replaces three cables with one, it was recently affected by a similar problem as some Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs. A user on Reddit posted a few days ago that the power cable connector for their ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi OC card melted at the GPU end. Fortunately, the connector on the card was unaffected.

ASRock seemed to have something in the works already as the company has now released a new 12V-2x6 power cable with a NTC sensor and an L-shaped design. The negative temperature coefficient (NTC) sensor monitors the temperature and sends signals to the PSU for safe operation. However, this communication is only possible with ASRock Taichi and Phantom Gaming PSUs. The 12V-2x6 cable is compatible with 12VHPWR connectors as well and is similarly rated for up to 600W.

The L-shaped design will ensure that the cable is not being bent at the GPU end at unsafe angles and also give a cleaner look to the build. The connectors themselves are green in color and use 16 AWG (American Wire Gauge) size, as well as HCS (High-Current System) terminals with 94V-0 plastic material. ASRock is offering a 2-year limited warranty, granted there are no user errors like an improperly inserted connector. The green color pins should help with that as they would be more visible if not fully inserted.

While the cable will work with all PSUs, the communication between the NTC sensor and the PSU will be limited to only ASRock PSUs.