Many years and fried GPUs later, someone has engineered a device that could be the GPU saviour many have been looking for. It’s been a tale told too often of how a PC user installs their new pride and glory GPU, sits down to game, only to wonder what’s cooking as an unusual aroma fills the room. Enter the Ampinel 12V-2×6 from Aqua Computer, a new active management adapter that can monitor temperature, provide active current balancing, and perform emergency shutdowns. While not the first such device to pop up in recent years to have some of these features, it is the first to do so in an all-encompassing approach and has received top praise from famed hardware tester Igor Wallossek.
“The AMPINEL is not simply a measuring servant, it is a fireman, referee and night watchman all in one. It prevents the 12V-2×6 from mutating into the next RMA wave.”
-Igor Wallossek (machine translated)
By using MOSFETs, shunts, and a fast MCU, AMPINEL can provide real-time load balancing via analog and digital means, thus ensuring that pins in the 12HPWR/12V-2×6 connector receive equal power distribution. Snake oil, marketing shenanigans, nope, the AMPINEL actually features technology that many would consider should already be present on graphics cards with these connectors. Components are packed onto a six-layer PCB, each is 70 µm copper, and includes a configurable display. A robust software solution is also provided for close monitoring of 40 measured values and further configuration. The device retains support for the “sense” pins, which are designed to detect improper connector insertion and can also use them to shut down power delivery when other dangerous events occur. An 85 dB buzzer will alarm when something has gone awry.
“In the event of a fault, the eight-stage alarm management ensures maximum safety. In the event of a slight deviation from specified limits, LEDs can flash as a warning, an audible alarm can sound, a pop-up message can be displayed in Windows, or an external speedometer signal can be interrupted via the alarm output.”
-Aqua Computer
“Step-by-step and intelligent: first the LEDs flash and the buzzer beeps, then the software terminates 3D loads, then the computer shuts down in a controlled manner and, if necessary, the card is brutally disconnected from the power supply. A multi-level safety net that is unique in this industry.”
-Igor Wallossek (machine translated)
The Ampinel is not yet available, but pre-orders have begun at $93.58/€79.90 (not including shipping/taxes). A handmade prototype was provided to Igor for review. which fully performed as intended during rigorous testing, thus getting 5 out of 5 stars from Wallossek. Orders are expected to begin shipping sometime in November.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Wait so this 80 dollar marvel doesn't make the connector better but makes it safer to be bad. And Nvidia can't add this to their designs and OEMs because.... it's too expensive on a 2k card? Every company with a 12vhp port should be licensing this for their cards. The cost to manufacture and include these at scale should be a blip at best. I know if I saw 2 cards. One with this integrated and one without id pay 40 bucks more for the one with it.
This is a neat little product.
I may just have to pick one up when I get around to assembling the game machine with the 5090.
If it fits with the Alphacool water block I bought that is. I haven't looked closely at it yet, but the EKWB block I had for my 4090 recessed access to the power connector so my cablemod bends didn't fit. That later turned out to be a blessing in disguise as those Cablemod bends were later recalled for burning up 😅
$80 seems a little steep, but it is a relatively cheap insurance policy compared to burning up a 5090....
No, don't do it. Don't play by the rules of a-holes. It is not our responsibility to pay extra to make their product safe. If the FTC had any teeth it should've forced nvidia / OEMs to change the design.
Aquacomputer didn't design Nvidia's GPU's. They are just coming up with a solution since Nvidia refuses to do it right.
And Aquacomputer is a pretty good company.
They deserve per unit licensing to include this tech on every card with the connector.
No they didn't they are just exploiting nvidia's anti consumer bs. As soon as you buy it you normalize that they can just sell a faulty and potentially dangerous product and its up to the user to fix it if they want to sleep at night.
There is nothing to license here, a load balancer is not magic, nvidia could've added their own but they decided to go with the pinto route.
Look, I understand where you are coming from, but if this cheap little device can prevent a meltdown of a multi-thousand dollar build, then it is silly not to.
Nvidia is unlikely to make any changes to the power connector either way. They have been completely intransigent on this issue.
And honestly, even withholding sales are unlikely do make a difference. They consider themselves to be doing us a favor by even letting us buy anything at all, because they could make much more money by using the consumer silicon allotment for AI chips and just discontinuing consumer GPU's all together,
As long as they are raking in the billions from AI, they don't care about the consumer market in the slightest. Every time they make a consumer GPU, it is a relative cost, because of how much more those square millimeters of silicon chip could sell for if instead they used them for AI specific chips. It's honestly weird that they continue to make consumer GPU's at all. At this point it is little more than leather jacket man's pet project or maybe even some sort of fallback plan for if/when the bottom falls out of the AI market, but that's it.
They simply do not care about the consumer GPU market, and chances of them ever giving the GPU's enough attention to change the power connector are slim to none.
No amount of consumer pressure will change that. They do not care about the consumers and their money. It is insignificant compared to their enterprise AI customers.
So we are on our own, and we have to do the best we can to protect ourselves.
The same is happening to AMD what with OpenAI reportedly taking a 5% stake in the company.
Companies go where they money is, and unfortunately, even at $3k for a high end GPU, that's not us. Those days are over, Probably for good. From here on out we are likely to only get the breadcrumbs that are left over from the AI market. Our business may have built these companies, but they don't give a shit about that. They care about where the biggest profits are coming from today.
Intel Save us?!
Yeah, Nvidia just took a major stake in Intel....
It's all AI now.
The answer there isn’t to boycott the Aquacool device. If anything we should all be supporting them for finding a need and providing that with a well designed product
To achieve what you are after - you need to boycott the root of the problem: nVidia. And no one is talking about doing that because no one takes the competition seriously.
Been doing that for years. It's getting hard to get a decent video card that isn't from NV. And despite the focus on the AI market, NV is still up to its old tricks when it comes to making life difficult for non-NV card owners.
Don't get me wrong, a 9070XT is a fine card, and AMD apparently sold quite a few of them. But it's not like it was in the old days.
The root would be these guys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-SIG, beeing the first to adopt it does not make you the root cause
Too true and Igor was also quick to point that out.
And continuing to be the champion/distributor of that connection in spite of it's faults through multiple generations would make you the accomplice. And in turn part of the problem rather than a victim.