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Nvidia won, we all lost

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977 points todsacerdoti | 3 comments | 04 Jul 25 21:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.695s | source
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ryao ◴[04 Jul 25 22:48 UTC] No.44468582[source]▶
> The RTX 50 series are the second generation of NVIDIA cards to use the 12VHPWR connector.

This is wrong. The 50 series uses 12V-2x6, not 12VHPWR. The 30 series was the first to use 12VHPR. The 40 series was the second to use 12VHPWR and first to use 12V-2x6. The 50 series was the second to use 12V-2x6. The female connectors are what changed in 12V-2x6. The male connectors are identical between 12V-2x6 and 12VHPWR.

replies(1): >>44468620 #
ohdeargodno ◴[04 Jul 25 22:54 UTC] No.44468620[source]▶
Nitpicking it doesn't change the fact that the 12v2x6 connector _also_ burns down.
replies(2): >>44468647 #>>44469811 #
ryao ◴[04 Jul 25 22:59 UTC] No.44468647[source]▶
The guy accuses Nvidia of not doing anything about that problem, but ignored that they did with the 12V-2x6 connector, which as far as I can tell, has had far fewer issues.
replies(2): >>44468698 #>>44469507 #
Gracana ◴[04 Jul 25 23:07 UTC] No.44468698[source]▶
It still has no fusing, sensing, or load balancing for the individual wires. It is a fire waiting to happen.
replies(1): >>44469593 #
ryao ◴[05 Jul 25 02:13 UTC] No.44469593[source]▶
It is a connector. None of the connectors inside a PC have those. They could add them to the circuitry on the PCB side of the connector, but that is entirely separate from the connector.

That said, the industry seems to be moving to adding detection into the PSU, given seasonic’s announcement:

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/power-supplies/se...

Finally, I think there is a simpler solution, which is to change the cable to use two large gauge wires instead of 12 individual ones to carry current. That would eliminate the need for balancing the wires in the first place.

replies(1): >>44470076 #
1. Gracana ◴[05 Jul 25 04:31 UTC] No.44470076[source]▶
Previous well-designed video cards used the technologies I described. Eliminating the sense circuits and fusing is a recent development.

I do like the idea of just using big wires. It’d be so much cleaner and simpler. Also using 24 or 48V would be nice, but that’d be an even bigger departure from current designs.

replies(1): >>44472827 #
2. ryao ◴[05 Jul 25 13:54 UTC] No.44472827[source]▶
> Previous well-designed video cards used the technologies I described. Eliminating the sense circuits and fusing is a recent development.

My point is that the PCB is where such features would be present, not the connector. There are connectors that have fusing. The UK’s AC power plugs are examples of them. The connectors inside PCs are not.

replies(1): >>44473314 #
3. Gracana ◴[05 Jul 25 15:14 UTC] No.44473314[source]▶
Oh, sure, I’m not proposing that the connector itself should have those features, rather that it shouldn’t be used without them present on the device.