Upcoming PCIe 12VHPWR Connectors Compatible with NVIDIA RTX 30-series Founders Edition Graphics Cards

As you’re most likely aware of, NVIDIA introduced a new power connector with its RTX 30-series Founders Edition graphics cards and at the time it was something of a controversy, especially as none of its AIB partners went for the connector. As it turned out, the connector was largely accepted by the PCI-SIG, with a few additions which lead to the 12VHPWR connector. The main difference between the two was the addition of a small set of sense connectors, for a 12+4-pin type connector. It has now been confirmed that the 12VHPWR will work with NVIDIA’s Founders Edition cards, although this isn’t a huge surprise as such, but rather good news for those that happen to own a Founders Edition card and are looking to invest in a new PSU.

However, what’s more interesting in the news about the 12VHPWR connector is that it will operate in two distinct modes. If the 4-pin sense connector isn’t connected to the GPU, the PSU will only deliver 450 Watts to the GPU, presumably as some kind of safety precaution. On the other hand, if the sense connector is used, the same cable can deliver up to 600 Watts, which would allow for a combined card power draw of up to 675 Watts for next generation GPUs. It’s possible that we’ll see cards with multiple power thresholds that will be negotiated on the fly with the PSU and we might also see PSU’s that can force a lower power state of the GPU in case the overall system load gets too high. It’ll be interesting to see what the new standard delivers, since so far not a lot of details have been released with regards to how the sense function works in detail.