AMD won't be adopting the 12VHPWR power adapter connector for its next-gen graphics cards, according to an IT industry veteran. It looks like Team Red has wisely, or luckily, dodged a white-hot tracer bullet, as the story of melting GeForce RTX 4090 power connectors erupted on Monday. Ex-HardOCP editor and ex-Intel exec, Kyle Bennett confirmed with multiple sources that neither AMD reference nor AIB custom designs using RDNA 3 GPUs have opted for the compact 16-pin power connector standard.

To recap the developing situation. Recently we reported on the first few instances of melted RTX 4090 16-pin adapters. This left us pondering over whether it was a sign of things to come. Shortly after publishing, further reports of melted power connectors on RTX 4090 cards emerged. We also published an illuminating image of a guide to correctly connect the 16-pin power connector from the PSU to the input on the graphics card. The cabling is apparently very fussy about even the gentlest of bends, and should be kept straight until the cable is at least 35mm away from the connector assembly. This is a big ask for practical installation in most PC cases.

AMD's most powerful upcoming Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards are expected to utilise the Navi 31 GPU . Bennett asked around his extensive contacts in AMD and Team Red AIB partners, and claims that we won't be seeing RDNA 3 graphics cards integrating this emerging GPU power connector standard. His language was a little more firm about the AMD reference designs not using the 16-pin power connector, than for partner cards. However, that is the nature of the business; there are so many partners it is sometimes hard to keep track of their designs, especially at this secretive time in the process of preparing the next gen Radeon products.

Some will naturally wonder why AMD hasn't gone down the 12VHPWR / 16-pin power connector route with its upcoming Radeon RX 7000 series flagship(s). In this pre-launch period we can't say for sure; it could be that the Navi 31 GPU powered cards can make do with traditional power delivery methodologies relying on multiple 8-pin connectors, it could be that RNDA 3 architecture graphics cards are going to be so efficient they won't need three or four 8-pin connectors hanging off the PCB, or it could be that AMD predicted this issue with the compact 16-pin power connectors and stood back.

The latest information we have is that AMD will launch its next-generation Radeon RX 7000-series graphics cards next month with initial availability in December.