A power connector on an ASUS MEGALODON GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has burned out, drawing significant attention. This issue is surprising because this graphics card has a TGP (Total Graphics Power) of only 200 watts. This is much lower compared to the 450 watts or nearly 600 watts consumed by the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 5090, which have faced similar problems.
A 16-pin power connector can supply up to 600 watts of power. When operating below 300 watts, the connector is usually in a safe range, making it very unlikely that it would burn out. However, despite this, the cable burned, sparking speculation and comments that it might have been caused by user error. But now, the cause is clear.
The Real Cause of the Burnt Connector
It was not a user error when connecting the cable, which is a common issue when a 16-pin cable burns. What actually happened is that the user of this ASUS MEGALODON GeForce RTX 3060 Ti was using a 12-pin power cable instead of the correct 16-pin cable. This 12-pin cable lacks the four control pins that are found in the 16-pin cable.
These four control pins are essential for proper power detection and ensuring the graphics card receives the correct power. From the user’s comments, it seems that the graphics card came with an adapter featuring two 8-pin connectors to a 12-pin connector, instead of including an adapter to a 16-pin connector.
Why This Happened Despite the 12-Pin Cable
The issue lies in the use of the wrong cable, which is unusual because even with a 12-pin cable, this shouldn’t have happened. The cable should have been capable of handling the 200-watt TGP. This has led some users to blame the owner of the graphics card, speculating that there might have been an installation error or improper insertion of the connectors.
