After the leaks of Nvidia RTX 3000 card pictures, another picture has surfaced showcasing a 12-pin power connector by Seasonic. The images were first posted by Seasonic on bilibili, which is a Chinese media portal, which was later posted by HXL on Twitter.
The images show a box containing the NVIDIA 12-pin PCIe Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 connector. The Molex connector is packaged within a cardboard box and contains the 12-Pin power connector adapter which makes use of two 8-pin connectors directly from the PSU. The cable is 750mm long which makes it more than enough for use in any type of PC casings.
SEASONIC：NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Power connector？😏https://t.co/YRJrVKzR2Q pic.twitter.com/fr1wAjdXgA
— HXL (@9550pro) August 23, 2020
A big point to note is that on the box, it says that ‘It is recommended to use a power supply rater 850w or higher with this cable’. This may mean that the higher end of the NVIDIA RTX 3000 series cards will be drawing huge power. As it is drawing power from 2x 8-pin connectors which combine to a power draw of max 300W, we may see a 300W TDP card this time.
The 8-pin power connectors are rated for 150W each, which paired with 75W which is supplied by the PCIe port, totals up to max 375W of total board power. It is currently rumored that only the founder’s editions cards will be using the 12-pin power connector, and the cards from different vendors will still use the old 8-pin connectors.
As per the Seasonic official account, the 12-pin connector has been actively used by NVIDIA for internal testing and it is unlikely that graphics card makers are going to ship the adapters by their own as the specifications for the 12-pin adapters. It is also currently not clear if the 12-pin connector will even make it to the market.
Seasonic said on the bilibili form that:
Is it really unsure, dare to send because there is no NDA. If it is true, the power supply manufacturer will increase the cost of the bonus line, and Lao Huang will not give us a penny. It is currently only used for testing.
We will have to wait for the official release to see what NVIDIA has planned for their RTX 3000 series cards.
