The Importance of Current Balancing With Multi-Wire Power Inputs
1 min read
Summary
In the past two years the much smaller 12V-2×6 connector (also known as 12VHPWR) has been the subject of much heated debate due to the connector’s reputation of overheating and thus melting, often taking parts of the GPU and surrounding circuitry with it.
This is largely due to how the 12VHPWR handles power distribution, where multiple smaller gauge wires carry less current each, in comparison to the older 8-pin PCIe connector where a single thicker wire would carry the entire current.
This article investigates why this changed, why the connector is the way it is, and what might be done in the future to mitigate these issues.
