According to Videocardz a Reddit user going by u/e92justin posted images of a cooked 16-pin cable on his Sapphire RX 9070 XT Nitro+ rig. The card was juiced via a Corsair PSU using the bundled 3x 8-pin to 12VHPWR adapter, because the PSU lacked a native 16-pin. That setup, while not ideal, shouldn’t be melting down on a card with a rated draw of around 300W.

What’s troubling is that even with a +10 per cent power limit bump, putting the card around 360W, it still shouldn’t have turned the cable into fondue. Especially when you consider that Nvidia’s RTX 5080, with similar TDP, manages to avoid thermal death more often than not.

Of course, the GeForce RTX 5090 still manages to roast connectors with TDPs pushing 600W, but that’s more forgivable. The RX 9070 XT isn't in that ballpark and has fewer models using the 16-pin power connector to begin with. Most vendors wisely stick to the classic triple 8-pin PCIe layout.

As with ASRock’s model, this failure adds to concerns about the connector standard itself. The 12VHPWR and its 12V-2x6 sibling have proven flaky when adapters are involved, often due to poor load balancing or iffy cable seating.

Sapphire's card now stands as the second melted casualty of this design misadventure. Anyone still eyeing a 16-pin variant of the RX 9070 XT should seriously consider sticking with the 3x 8-pin versions instead. If you’ve already bought one of these, read the manufacturer’s fine print.