The 12VHPWR connector, typically associated with high-end GeForce RTX GPUs, has now found itself in a surprising and rare incident involving the budget GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. This card, which typically requires only 200-250W of power, became the victim of the dreaded melting connector. 
Interestingly, this wasn’t an RTX 4090 or 5090, but a budget-level 60-class card from the Ampere family.
ASUS had released a version of the RTX 3060 Ti in 2023 for the Chinese market that included the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector. Despite the relatively modest power needs of the card (200W), ASUS still chose to equip it with the 16-pin connector, which is usually reserved for higher-end models. The problem arose not from the connector itself, but from an unusual adapter that came with the GPU.
This adapter, which was intended for users with PSUs lacking the 16-pin connector, converted 12-pin to dual 8-pin PCIe. However, it turned out to be a flawed solution. The 12VHPWR connector usually has a 12+4 pin configuration, but the adapter shipped with the RTX 3060 Ti was missing 4 essential pins-the sense pins. These pins are responsible for ensuring a proper connection, and without them, the GPU couldn’t reliably receive power. The result was disastrous, leading to horrific melting.
While the RTX 3060 Ti typically has a power limit of 310W, and the 12VHPWR connector can safely supply power up to 300W, this setup was likely destined to fail if the connector was even slightly loose. It’s worth noting that this incident seems to be the first reported case of a 16-pin connector melting on an RTX 3060 Ti. While it’s easy to blame user error, ASUS’s decision to include such a faulty adapter cannot be ignored.