Call me bananas, but having to buy a fancy new Asus GPU cable to avoid molten ports shouldn't be a thing

I sometimes feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone when it comes to the best graphics cards today. The price of premium Nvidia and AMD GPUs is bad enough, but the fact that there's a market for power supply cables that are less likely to melt when connected to the latter is just ludicrous.

That's not to say I blame Asus for creating the ROG Equalizer, a freshly announced 12v-2x6 PCIe power cable that expands its GPU load capacity from 9.2 amps to 17A, but I've no idea how we got to this stage. For context, the situation stems back to issues with graphics cards like the RTX 5090 and Geforce RTX 5080 overheating due to 12v pins being supplied with too high a wattage, leading to extreme overheating.

This is an issue that's been haunting Nvidia GPUs since the RTX 4090 introduced the 12VHPWR connector and replaced the standard 8-pin port. AMD is still using the old-style connector in new cards like the RX 9070, so it's primarily GeForce users who'll be considering whether they should pick up the ROG Equalizer.

Asus says its new GPU cable "ensures balanced current delivery from PSU," by achieving lower wattages across the six pins. That in turn produces cooler temperatures when your GPU slurps a full 600W, with the wiring itself featuring a solid copper core accompanied by tin shielding and a protective etched sheath.

Of course, it's worth underlining that while Asus says its cable is compatible with GPUs by other manufacturers, it does caveat that results are dependent on socket quality. I suspect you'll also have to remember the previous advice of making sure the cable is inserted properly with a reassuring "click", otherwise you could still end up with burny nonsense occurring.

Asus hasn't announced a price for the ROG Equalizer, but it is set to come free with ROG Thor III and ROG Strix Platinum PSUs. If you already grabbed a supply, you'll seemingly be able to grab the cable at a discount, and while I think the need for it is bizarre, it's worth thinking about if you've got a GPU that's well over a grand within your rig.

• Graphics cards at Amazon
• Gaming PCs at Amazon

Building a new rig? Swing by the best CPU for gaming and best RAM for crucial components. If you'd rather escape your desk, check out the best gaming handheld for the latest portable PCs and more.