4 ms·

Was there a good reason why they switched from 3x8pin to 1x12pin for so much wattage?

• cmsj 4y ago
  They started this in the last generation where the founders cards had a different-but-similar connector. In this generation, they would actually need 4x8pin to reach the 600W maximum these cards are supposed to be able to draw in a fully overclocked state, so really this just comes down to PCB space, but with the draw getting this high, the cable also has some signalling wires so the card knows how many Watts it should limit itself to.
  • rob-olmos 4y ago
    Ah interesting, thanks. Looking more into it, 4x8pin would be 12x12v wires/pins, and the 12VHPWR only has 6x12v for the same max wattage.
  • bcrosby95 4y ago
    As someone ignorant to this space, considering the PCB is already shorter than the heatsink, I assume the problem is more of re-arranging other components on the PCB than the actual physical space the final product takes up.
• Latty 4y ago
  I mean, firstly just that consumers hate having to plug in a ton of cables: it's bad for aesthetics, it's annoying to manage the cables, etc... The bigger reason is probably to save board space as nvidia have been shrinking the form factor of the actual boards so they can dedicate more room to flow-through cooling. Connectors take up a lot of board edge. The new spec does also have data pins so the devices can negotiate for power which could in theory reduce issues and inform the consumer better about limits with future PSUs and devices. So there are advantages to the new spec, both specifically with the form factor and more generally.