PCIe 5.0 power connector for FE RTX 30 series (Update 2) cards

With the ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II from ASUS, we received our first power supply today, which the manufacturer advertises with PCIe 5.0 compatibility in terms of power supply. ASUS introduced this model in mid-January.

ASUS includes a power supply cable, which is supplied via 2 x 8 pins on one side of the power supply and has a known 12-pin connector on the other side. It didn’t seem entirely clear beforehand that this 12-pin connector was identical to what NVIDIA introduced with the Founders Editions. We can now confirm: the connector advertised as a PCIe 5.0 connector fits the corresponding connector on Founders Edition cards.

Prior to launching the GeForce RTX 30 series in summer 2020, Seasonic provided us with a matching adapter, which is also connected to a modular power supply on one side and has a 12-pin connector on the other. NVIDIA Founders Edition cards always come with an adapter that converts one or two 8-pin connectors into 12-pin PCI Express.

In addition to Seasonic, other power supply manufacturers have also offered such transformers. For some time now, every manufacturer that has had such a power supply and adapter has been able to claim to have a PCIe 5.0 compatible power supply on offer.

PCIe 5.0 power supply has been more or less official for a few weeks. In addition to ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II, ASUS also introduced a new SFX-L series called ROG Loki at CES. Here, too, there was talk of PCIe 5.0 compatibility. The pictures show an expansion of the connection with four additional pins. The first details of this appeared as early as October. However, the actual power supply continues to be supplied via 12 pins. It is possible that data lines are used to communicate between the power supply and the connected graphics card. With up to 600 watts, this may make sense so you can take precautions in the event of a similar load or an alleged overload.

Video Cards Summarize the information available on the data lines as follows: pins S1 (CARD_PWR_STABLE) and S2 (CARD_CBL_PRES) are used for some kind of communication between the power supply and the consumer. S3 is used as SENSE0 to determine whether the card can be fed 450W or 600W. If the S3 is grounded, this is the case.

While ASUS simply included an adapter cable for the ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II, which plugs into the 8-pin connectors already available to the power supply, ROG Loki has a dedicated PCIe 5.0 power supply connector.

With the introduction of the first Founders Edition cards for the GeForce RTX 30 series, NVIDIA developed a 12-pin connector based on the PCI Express 5.0 specification and made it compatible. As a member of the PCI SIG, that’s not really surprising, and NVIDIA can attest to some insight in this regard.

First update: downgrade to 450W

Seemingly ASUS Description Text Modified to comply with PCIe 5.0 specification (via Video Cards). Now it says here:

“Each ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II PSU is bundled with a 12-pin PCIe cable that can deliver up to 450W of power to PCIe Gen 5.0 graphics cards.” – So far we’ve been talking about up to 600 watts.

Accordingly, ASUS lowered the maximum power consumption from 600 to 450 watts, which is not a problem for all existing Founders Edition cards. In order to fully comply with the PCIe 5.0 specification, an additional 4 data pins are obviously necessary in addition to the 12 pins to be able to deliver up to 600 watts over this connection.

Second update: but again up to 600 watts

After ASUS initially reduced the description text for the PCIe power connector from 600 to 450 watts, Kert has now switched again. subordinate Description text on the product page Now again It can deliver up to 600 watts of power to PCIe Gen 5.0 graphics cards.

This means ROG Thor power supply owners are ready for the next generation of graphics cards and can also use models that require up to 600W. According to rumors, NVIDIA in particular is using an increased power limit.