Overview
- ASUS introduced the ROG Equalizer, a 12V‑2x6 (16‑pin) GPU power cable that aims to balance current across all pins to cut heat at the connector.
- The launch responds to widespread reports of overheated 16‑pin plugs on high‑power cards, which occur when a few pins carry most of the load due to poor contact.
- Each pin is rated for up to 17 A compared with about 9.2 A on standard cables, with a design intended for GPUs drawing up to 600 W such as the GeForce RTX 5090.
- ASUS reports an extreme test where four +12 V wires were removed, claiming the Equalizer held near 73.4°C while a standard cable rose to about 146°C.
- The cable integrates with ASUS’s Power Detector+ in GPU Tweak III for real‑time monitoring, and it will be bundled with 2026 ROG Thor III and ROG Strix Platinum PSUs, work with ATX 3.1/PCIe 5.1 PSUs from other brands, offer upgrades for current customers, and still lacks pricing or independent validation.