The Curious Case of the 12-pin Connector: It's Real and Coming with NVIDIA Ampere GPU

[Jon Gerow]

They’re certainly ignoring the fact that those cable companies will no doubt create a 12 pin to molex adapter so someone can try and run the cards off some ancient Powmax Assassin. Because it’s never about whether you should.

That would be tragic... and hilarious all at the same time. BRING IT ON!!!!!

[Cass-Olé]

On page1 I agree w/Mask, that to be 600w capable: "To make it somewhat foolproof it needs to be four 8 pins PEG connectors to this new 12 pins PEG" ... lol

I agree w/Jon the photo of the 6+6 appears to be a Micro-Fit receptacle housing. Now, Tom'sHardware article speaks of 16AWG wires/pins (While the pins on the connector support 648W, you'll need 16AWG cables to get there), but Micro-Fit accepts only 18AWG pins/terminals tops

PTDC0007.jpg
I have a couple Micro-Fit 3.0 18AWG terminals left here from a project (430300038), man they are puny AF ... tiny man!, micro!

Thinking out loud: whether through an adapter (Molex lol) or new PSU modular cable variants, Shirley they won't crimp 16AWG wire to Micro-Fit 18AWG terminals in order to pull this off ... ewwww ... & besides, the terminals are too small for it ...

Also, I hate the idea of adapters ... nevermind the looks, it's the subtle loss of power & the resistance build-up due to the mechanical coupling that messes with my OCD. I like to do more with more, not more with less

[Spotty]

I keep seeing 600W-648W being thrown around for what the new cable would be capable of, though mostly in the same articles saying you'll need to throw out half your PC. What are they basing that on? The max current limit for the terminals/connector housing?
Looking at the Molex spec sheets the micro-fit connectors/terminals are rated for up to 8.5A. 6 circuits that's 612W. (I've seen some articles mention max current of 9A, but I think they grabbed that from mini-fit)

Just because the terminal or connector can do it doesn't mean the rest of the cable can. As Cass-Ole mentioned above the terminals for the micro-fit connector will only take up to 18AWG cables.

Just look at the existing PCIe cables. The "75W" 6pin PCIe housing has 3x +12V pins and a maximum current rating of 9A. https://www.molex.com/webdocs/datash...P_HOUSINGS.pdf
9A * 3 * 12V = 324W. Way beyond what it's actually "spec'd" for.

I think actually seeing anywhere near 600W spec/rating/actual load for the 12pin connector is a pipe dream.
More realistically would probably be closer to half that. Which is probably fine. 300W - 360W or so rating for the cable (+75W from slot) should be fine unless Nvidia is planning some crazy dual GPU cards, which I doubt. But then that begs the question what's the point of the connector over two 8pin PCIe connectors which could already do 300W combined (+75W from the board)? Is it just about reducing space on the PCB?



Even if this is something that is more for OEMs/prebuilts and even if it would be relatively easy for them to include a power supply with the connector on it, I still somehow doubt we'd be seeing it on the average Alienware PC. I'm wondering if this would perhaps instead end up on the Ampere generation of Quadro cards in servers, not the geforce cards?

[Jon Gerow]

I agree w/Jon the photo of the 6+6 appears to be a Micro-Fit receptacle housing. Now, Tom'sHardware article speaks of 16AWG wires/pins (While the pins on the connector support 648W, you'll need 16AWG cables to get there), but Micro-Fit accepts only 18AWG pins/terminals tops

PTDC0007.jpg
I have a couple Micro-Fit 3.0 18AWG terminals left here from a project (430300038), man they are puny AF ... tiny man!, micro!

It's not micro-fit. The pins are micro-fit+. Made for 16g and not just 18g.

I keep seeing 600W-648W being thrown around for what the new cable would be capable of, though mostly in the same articles saying you'll need to throw out half your PC. What are they basing that on? The max current limit for the terminals/connector housing?

Pretty much. All speculation. Everyone is looking at this as Ampere needing more power. And they got to that conclusion by seeing the 9A and multiplying by 6, then 12.

It's so stupid. Are these the same people that are asking for a second EPS12V when they're not doing LN2 OC competition?? Because, by their own logic, a micro-fit pin supports 11A. 11 X 4 X 12 = 528W! So unless your CPU uses more than 528W of power, a single EPS12V is fine! LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!




Idiots.

[Tator Tot]

To be fair, many video cards add-on a 2nd 8pin connector (when reference is single 8pin or 8pin + 6pin) to make their custom design look beefier.
Or motherboard manufacturers adding in a 2nd 8pin or 4pin connector for the CPU. I mean seriously, who's going to be doing any kind of DICE, LN2, LHE overclocking on a $135 board.

[Beridow]

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