Blackwell, the upcoming GeForce generation from Nvidia, could be released again with new power plugs. It’s not surprising after the fiasco surrounding the 12VHPWR connectors, which could melt due to incorrect use on the one hand and a not entirely well thought-out design on the other because the contact pins were not inserted cleanly. The problem has now been resolved with a new design, but according to Moore’s Law Is Dead, Nvidia wants to push through the PCI-E 6 standard with the Geforce RTX 5000.
The connector would be the third generation of the 16-pin connector (12+4), now referred to as 12V-2×6, and Moore’s Law Is Dead believes that Nvidia primarily wants to clean up its supply chain. With just one connector on all products, you save on different designs, components and adapters. Nvidia apparently hopes that the power supply manufacturers will then take care of the cables and connectors and would have the problem reduced from the budget. However, power supply manufacturers would still have to offer 2× 6+2, because apparently only Nvidia is interested in taking this step and AMD and Intel are not.
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The plugs support up to 600 watts, which will worry some people, because if all cards come with the plug, all cards also have the option of relatively high power consumption, which generally gives little hope for more economical cards. Moore’s Law Is Dead predicts that Nvidia can adjust the performance of PCB designs at any time without having to redesign much if necessary. Whether it comes to that remains to be seen. First of all, the plugs would have to establish themselves.
12VHPWR connector: Seasonic recommends unusual measures
What is known so far about the 12V-2×6:
The design, called 12V-2×6, is intended to include more standardized testing to ensure that each version of this cable is developed to specifications. The new design will be part of the new PCIe Base 6 specifications. The new version of the connector is also part of the CEM 5.1 specifications proposed by PCI-SIG for the ATX 3.1 specifications. However, these are not yet the final specifications and the final design, but just one Part of the unpublished draft. The PCIe Base 6 connector will be compatible with some of the existing 12VHPWR connectors, however the new version will have different specifications with adjusted continuous power values. This may also result in changes to the firmware of power supplies and /or graphics cards required.
[PLUS] ATX 3.1 power supplies and 12V 2×6: What do you need to know? PCGH Plus: Power supplies with Intel’s ATX 3.0 specification are gradually coming onto the market and then this: Intel is redesigning the power hearts of computers with ATX 3.1. Which changes are actually important? The article comes from PC Games Hardware 12/2023.
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