One of the biggest changes we’re going to have in graphics cards is the new 12+4 pin power cable and its ability to directly supply up to 600W of power. Well, in the ATX v3 design guide, there are details about 12VHPWR that we were unaware of until now that complements the little information about it.
One of the biggest problems with graphics cards is consumption, and at the moment we have not found a type of VRAM memory that is cheap to manufacture and at the same time has a moderate consumption. As GPUs become more complex, bandwidth requirements increase and with them power consumption, hence the need for higher powers, which has led to the creation of a power cable that can reach 600W.
New 12VHPWR cable details in ATX v3
The ATX v3 standard is a series of specifications that creators of motherboards and PC cases must follow as long as their products are compatible with those of other brands and allow correct operation with the rest of the components. Especially with the motherboards, since these will suffer from a rise in power and the appearance of the new connector 600W PCI Expressalso known as 12VHPWR and that it has a 12+4 pin configuration.
And what new details can we get about the 12VHPWR that there is in ATX v3? First of all we have to connector is 20.85mm wide, which is slightly larger than the 19 mm of the 8-pin connector. Regarding the assignment of each pin, we have this 6 of them are for grounding and 6 more can each deliver up to 12 volts with 9.2 amps of current. so we’re talking about 110.4 watts per pin and a theoretical total of 662.4Wbut they will remain at 600.
That’s in terms of the 12 main pins, but in terms of the 4 smaller ones that can be seen on the connector at the moment the assignment of each of them is unknownsince those details haven’t been leaked yet, but we shouldn’t take long to see them.
Does the 8-pin PCIe connector have an expiration date?
One of the things that was leaked with the documentation is the fact that we’re not just going to see 450W and 600W cables, but that’s also being considered versions with less power with 150 W and 300 W. This therefore means that a user with a motherboard and a power supply with the 12VHPWR connector could connect their graphics card which used 1 or 2 8-pin connectors to the new connector. We may even see mid-high or mid-low range models in the future that use 12+4.
If you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense to keep 2 connectors that give the same power in power supplies and graphics cards. It is therefore possible that the 8-pin connector already has an expiration date. Which would lead to the use of a special adapter to connect old graphics to future motherboards.
