A month or so ago, there were rumors circulating that NVIDIA’s next-gen Ampere graphics cards (RTX 3080 and 3090) would require a 12-pin power connector instead of the traditional 8-pin. At the time, most outlets didn’t take the reports seriously, but now it appears that it might just be the case.
As you can see in the above image, certain OEMs like Seasonic have started selling 12-pin power connectors for NVIDIA’s upcoming Ampere graphics cards. Now, the good thing is that you won’t need to replace the entire PSU. Just buying the cable should be enough, and it’s likely that it might even come with the GPU.
The 12-pin connector has two 8-pin connectors that need to be connected to the PSU, meaning the overall power draw should be roughly the same as that of two 8-pin power connectors. On the other hand, if the RTX 3090 requires two of these, then it’s going to be a real power hog.
Either way, as per sources, only the Founders Edition cards will require these 12-pin connectors while the board partner variants will stick to the standard dual 8-pin connectors. As such, you’ve got nothing to worry about.
