One thing is very clear, the power of our PCs in relation to their energy consumption is increasing, however if we look at their history in terms of consumption, we will see that their increase has increased over time and we find ourselves with this facing the graphics cards of the future, a new power connector is needed which gives the necessary power that current cards cannot give.
What is the new PCIe Gen 5 power connector?
Until now, the most powerful connector under the PCI Express standard was the 8-pin one with the capacity to deliver a total power of 150W, but as soon as its RTX 30 launched in 2020, NVIDIA began to introduce a connector 12 pin. cable pins with the ability to deliver up to 600W of power, which became the basis for the new PCIe Gen 5 power connector and will deliver 150W, 300W, 450W, and 600W power. Both being the latest power levels impossible to achieve with the old connector for graphics cards.
Why do I need a power supply with a PCIe Gen 5 connector?
The answer to this is very simple, in high end graphics cards we will start to see models that use this connector. Because to power the powerful GPUs that they will have inside, the double 8-pin connector is no longer enough with what the PCIe interface alone provides. In other words, 375 W is no longer enough to power said monsters and the memory that goes with it.
If this power boost didn’t exist, we would find that there wouldn’t be enough power for every core in future high-end GPUs, leading to clock speed and performance issues in some parts of the 3D pipeline. Not to mention the bottlenecks of having a much slower memory.
All this translates into increased consumption of graphics cards, which has brought with it the new PCIe Gen 5 connector, which receives two names: 12 + 4 pin connector or also known as 12VHPWR. So, in the near future we will see graphics cards that will use it, either with only one or with two of them.
What actual power does the new 12VHPWR connector deliver?
In many places you will see th at the consumption will be 600W, in others 450W. In both cases the answers are correct, since the sources with a 12VHPWR connector must have the capacity to power the graphics card with four different power levels which are 150W, 300W, 450W and 600W.
For the 150 W and 300 W consumptions, we do not think that a new power supply is necessary. Additionally, boards that use this level of safe consumption will bring with them an 8-pin or 8+8-pin adapter cable, respectively. Also, everything indicates that unless you’re looking to get a high-end graphics card, you won’t need a power supply with a PCIe Gen connector.
Differences with NVIDIA cable and connector
The reason the PCIe Gen 5 cable is known as 12+4 instead of 16 pin is that it is a extension to the proprietary cable that NVIDIA has started to include with its RTX 30. Thus, despite the fact that at first glance we can use a graphics card with the 12+0 connector in a power supply that has a 12+4 type, we must bear in mind that if the second type is backward compatible , the first is not the other way around. And it is that, as you will have understood, the cable cannot develop 4 additional connections and neither can the socket.
A source with a 12+0 connector will work for RTX 30 generation graphics cards, but not future. Especially if you opt for graphics hardware from AMD or Intel. NVIDIA may continue to use its 12+0 connector in the future. However, it is important to know the differences as we are going to see sources without the full PCIe Gen 5 slot, but they will use the NVIDIA one.
The best sources with PCIe Gen 5 connector
At the moment there are few that we can find on the market, since apart from the NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti there is currently no type of graphics card that requires this connector. However, as the connector can give a wide variety of power levels, it is possible that in 300W models it completely replaces the dual 8-pin connector for the same power. Especially if manufacturers can save an extra cable per product.
Anyway, if you’re a fan of PC gaming and saving up to buy a mid-range graphics card from the AMD RX 7000, Intel ARC Battlemage, or NVIDIA RTX 40 families, keep in mind that you have to have one of these sources with PCIe Gen 5 connector installed on your computer to be able to use
ASUS ROG Loki SFX-L
This power supply with PCIe Gen 5 connector has a Power 1200W of power and stands out for its compact size, which makes it perfect for mounting inside a tower or enclosure type Mini ITX due to its size. This is not why it does not meet the specifications, because it comes with a certification 80 PLUS Titaniumwhich earns it the top spot as it is the most energy efficient next to its size.
MSI MEG 1000/ 1300W
To date, we know little about the Member States’ proposal, except that they can provide 1300W of power and have a certification 80 PLUS Platinum. There is also a version of 1000W with the same specifications. We don’t consider it the best because it’s not designed for compact cases like the ASUS model.
GIGABYTE UD1000GM
From the name, you may have already guessed that this is a GIGABYTE power supply that can supply up to 1000W. At the time of writing this article, we may see models with much higher power from the manufacturer, especially when we have graphics cards that require those 600W of power for the GPU.
It is a modular power supply with 80 PLUS Gold certificationso it has an efficiency of 90% and has a 120mm fan to keep it fresh as long as possible. Their trainers are the so called Japanese or KMR which differ from conventional ones by their lifespan up to four times longer. If we are already talking about the typical protections against sudden voltage and voltage changes, as well as against short circuits, we have the complete set in this source with a PCIe Gen 5 connector.
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