MSI Might Have Saved 12VHPWR Cables From Melting With One Small Change

When the RTX 40-series launched, there was initially a bit of a brouhaha due to melting adapter cables. People assumed it was due to the extreme amounts of power coursing through the GPUs, and it coincided with complaints about the GPUs' size, making for an easy hit on Nvidia. However, after an exhaustive study, it was discovered people just weren't plugging them in all the way. Despite being attributed to user error, people still called for a redesign of the adapter cables as it was still difficult to tell if it was fully seated, which caused the issue in the first place. MSI has come up with a solution to this issue that's divine in its simplicity—it painted the connector yellow.

MSI showed off one of its new power supplies at Computex, including one that features a 12VHPWR cable for Nvidia's 40-series GPUs. The power supply's GPU power cable is the same as previous versions, except the tips that go into the GPU and PSU are now yellow. The logic is easy to understand; if you can still see some yellow, it's not plugged in all the way. This was a big sticking point with these cables, as they are all black, regardless of which company's power supply you have.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that when you plug it in, there is no firm click when inserted. With no audible or visual indication that it's fully seated, the only way to be sure is to yank on the cable to see if it stays in place. However, as demonstrated by PCWorld's Gordon Mah Ung below, even if you pull on the yellow-colored cable after inserting it, you can see a sliver of yellow appear, which would be impossible to discern on a black cable.

Of course, this won't fix the issue with Nvidia's adapters, which are all black. But for those who want to ditch the adapters and get an ATX 3.0 power supply with the cable built-in, MSI's solution should please everyone. Although the novel "feature" was shown off on an MSI MAG 850GL power supply, the company will offer it on all its ATX 3.0 power supplies, so the wattage/model likely doesn't matter. MSI has also made both ends of the cable yellow, so you can ensure it's fully inserted in both directions.

What's genuinely ingenious about this solution is in the wake of the melt-gate, many people were calling for the ATX 3.0 connector to be redesigned to alleviate this issue. That would have been a costly, time-consuming fix for what is a simple problem. We'll have to wait and see if other vendors, and Nvidia, adopt a similar strategy for their ATX 3.0 cables going forward, and we hope they do. Now that Nvidia has hitched its wagon to this new cable, it should look at MSI's design. It could even paint them lime green for some free brand exposure.