PCIe Gen 5 Power Connector Compatible With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Founders Edition 12-Pin Molex Micro-Fit 3.0

The new Gen 5 power connector is designed to provide a cleaner, more reliable connection than the current generation. New features include increased data transfer speed and improved signal stability.

NVIDIA image

Many people have been curious in NVIDIA’s new power connection for its GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards since the first speculations about it surfaced in July 2020. Some people quickly identified the connection as a PCIe Gen 5 12-pin Molex Micro-Fit series, which has yet to be formally released. Then, in November 2021, leaked pictures of the Asus ROG THOR Platinum II PSU revealed that it will have an adaptor with two 8-pin connections on one side and a 12-pin connector on the other. The PCIe Gen 5 power connection is now certified to be compatible with those found in NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition graphics cards.

NVIDIA had previously included adapters with its Founders Edition cards, and other PSU manufacturers like Corsair and Seasonic had also made them accessible, but it was unclear if these and PCI Gen 5 were the same thing until today. Many had hoped they would be, rather than some new proprietary design, but it now looks that NVIDIA was merely first to implement the new standard.

The connection, according to Andreas Schilling (Hardwareluxx), is compatible with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition 12-pin cable, which was previously thought to be a Molex Micro-Fit 3.0. He said, “Not only is the cable visually similar, but it also delivers the same amount of electricity.” This essentially indicates that NVIDIA developed the next-generation connection about a year before the specification was ever shown.”

Andreas demonstrated the ASUS THOR linked to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, the first card to use the new design.

Image courtesy of Hardwareluxx (Andreas Schilling)

From 8 to 12 and now 12+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4

With the GeForce RTX 30 Series, AIB partners have mainly maintained to utilizing 2x or 3x 8-pin connections for power supply However, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Kingpin was just announced as one of the first AIB cards to use the new design. It even included two 12-pin connections and promised to produce up to 1,275 watts of power. Officially, a single 12-pin is rated at 600 watts.

ASUS image

As if things weren’t complicated enough, ASUS has subsequently released another power supply the ROG Loki, with a 16-pin socket. It, too, is certified for up to 600 watts, but the additional four pins have sparked some conjecture. According to Igor Wallosek (Igor’s Lab), they are sideband signal carriers. These are formally known as “12VHPWR High Power Connector (H+),” and they enable the PSU to gauge how much power should be provided to the GPU.

Igor’s Lab (photo credit: Igor’s Lab)

Finally, the PCIe Gen 5 and NVIDIA’s 12-pin interfaces are backwards compatible and satisfy the same power supply specifications. It also looks that the new standard will evolve in the future to incorporate more functions.

Hardwareluxx is the source of this information (via VideoCardz)