NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 series Ampere gaming graphics cards are looking to offer a major design update over traditional graphics cards if the rumors are correct. The latest rumor comes from the Chinese tech outlet, FCPOWERUP, who are well known for their reporting on power supplies & have stated that NVIDIA is going to utilize a brand new power interface on its next-gen gaming lineup.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series (Ampere Gaming Graphics Cards) To Make Use of New Power Interface, A Huge Reference Design Update Over The Existing GenerationThe rumor follows up with what we've already heard about the power consumption figures of the next-generation lineup which are expected to exceed 300W. According to the source, NVIDIA will be equipping its reference GeForce RTX 30 series gaming graphics cards with a new power interface that comes in a 12 Pin design. We have already seen the cooler and the heatsink which is a huge update over the traditional reference design that NVIDIA has offered over the years. Even Turing's reference design went the untraditional path by offering a dual-axial fan-based design but Ampere might offer an even bolder and crazier design.Graphic core’s Colossus GC200 7nm Chip Competes Against The NVIDIA A100 GPU With Colossal Design & 250 TFLOPs AI Performance – 59.4 Billion Transistors In An 823mm2 Die
The blueprint of the 12V 12-pin connector is provided and from first look, it looks like traditional 2x 6-pin connectors hooked up together. The connector looks similar to the Molex Micro-Fit series of power connectors which are 19mm wide and have a 3mm pitch. This is the same width as the two 6-pin power connectors that current PSUs offer but offers a current capacity of 8.5A compared to 6A of mini-Fit 5556 connectors. At a perfect efficiency rate, the mini-fit would deliver 600 Watts of power but that's not always the case and the actual power delivered to the GPU is around 400W at 6 Amps. The primary bottleneck with the traditional connectors is the 20AWG specifications for the pins.
The source also reports that there's a secondary 4-pin interface next to the main 12-pin connector whose purpose is unknown at the moment. The source does mention that the new power delivery interface would be utilized by a GeForce RTX 30 Ampere Gaming graphics card bearing the PG142 board number. We can't say for sure which particular GPU this board would utilize but judging by the power requirements, it is possible that this might be the high-end GA102/GA104 GPU powered gaming cards which include RTX 3080 Ti / RTX 3090, RTX 3080, RTX 3070 Ti / RTX 3070.
This design may also just be specific to NVIDIA's reference 'Founders Edition' models while AIBs will still ship their custom designs with traditional mini-fit power connectors. It seems like users with good PSUs can still plug in two 6-pin power connectors given they meet the high efficiency required to sustain an enthusiast-grade graphics card. But then again, anyone running a $500 US+ graphics card would already be rocking a pretty decent quality PSU.
So it looks like the addition of this new 12-pin power connector won't require any big changes and you will indeed be able to run the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series Ampere gaming graphics cards without having to worry about buying a new PSU that falls in the standard of your brand new graphics card.