NVIDIA to change again the power connector for its GPUs? Is that true? According to my sources this doesn’t, since noone from the big players in the PSU business knows anything about that, and it is kind of hard to launch a new GPU without the proper PSUs supporting it, and we all know what happened last time that NVIDIA based on adapters to provide the desired PSU compatibility.
My friends on TechPowerUp wrote a newspost some hours ago mentioning the following:
NVIDIA is reportedly looking to change the power connector standard for the fourth successive time in a span of three years with its upcoming GeForce RTX 50-series “Blackwell” GPUs, Moore’s Law is Dead reports. This new 16-pin connector will probably have 16 pins dedicated to 12 V power delivery, besides signal pins (if any). The current 12V-2×6 connector has 12 pins dedicated to power delivery. NVIDIA began its post-8-pin PCIe journey with the 12-pin Molex MicroFit connector for the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Founders Edition cards. The RTX 3090 Ti would go on to standardize the 12VHPWR connector, which the company would debut across a wider section of its GeForce RTX 40-series “Ada” product stack (all SKUs with TGP of over 200 W). In the face of rising complaints about the reliability of 12VHPWR, some partner RTX 40-series cards are beginning to implement the pin-compatible but sturdier 12V-2×6. The implementation of the 16-pin PCIe Gen 6 connector would be the fourth power connector change if the rumors are true. A different source says that rival AMD has no plans to change from the classic 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
Once I saw this article, I immediately reached out to some of my contacts in the industry. I confirmed what I already knew that no one is aware of a new connector, and so far, NVIDIA has always cooperated with some major brands and labs (including Cybenetics through a third party) before going forward with releasing new connectors after the 12VHPWR problems. So, suppose nobody from the major industry players knows a thing about an allegedly new connector knows a thing. In that case, I seriously doubt that NVIDIA will be brave enough to do something on its own, given the facts so far. Moreover, the 12V-2×6, based on PCIe CEM 5.1, works well, offering adequate power for the current and future generation cards, and if you ever need more power, you can always use a pair of them!
