Rumors have already pointed to the forthcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 drawing quite a lot of energy, however the newest hypothesis is that the brand new GPU might haven’t one, however two 16-pin energy sockets. When 16-pin cables have been first launched with the 12VHPWR normal, there have been a number of reviews of the cables catching fireplace on RTX 4090 graphics playing cards, resulting in 12VHPWR being usurped by the safer 12V-2×6 energy normal, which additionally has 16 pins.
With AMD extensively rumored to be specializing in the mid-range market with its forthcoming RDNA 4 GPU, it seems as if Nvidia can have one of the best graphics card title all sewn up when it will definitely launches its flagship Blackwell gaming GPU. This new Nvidia GPU is rumored to be very power-hungry, although, with leaks pointing to the RTX 5090 energy draw being over 550W, and as excessive as 600W.
That latter determine is identical most wattage of a 12VHPWR energy cable, though the graphics card will even get a modest quantity of energy from the PCIe slot too. As soon as board companions begin overclocking their RTX 5090 graphics playing cards, although, that energy output will get even greater, and that’s the place the additional headroom of a pair of 12VHPWR cables might turn out to be useful.
Tech web site Tweak City has additionally simply added some additional hypothesis about this after visiting an MSI energy provide manufacturing facility in Shenzen, China. Whereas on the tour they noticed a brand new MSI PCIe 5.0 modular energy provide that had two 12V-2×6 energy connectors on it, and when requested why, MSI reportedly responded that they have been wanted to “assist the following era of graphics playing cards.”
MSI isn’t the primary firm to supply a PSU with two 16-pin connectors. Thermaltake has already launched the Toughpower GF3 1,650W Gold (pictured beneath), for instance, which additionally has a pair of 12VHPWR sockets on the PSU, which the corporate equally says “is constructed for the next-gen PCIe 5.0 graphics playing cards.”
Keep in mind that that is all hypothesis primarily based on rumor proper now, and there’s nonetheless each probability that the following flagship Nvidia GPU gained’t require a pair of 16-pin energy connectors in any case. Nonetheless, if some RTX 5090 playing cards did require two 16-pin energy cables, you would wish to test the spec of your PSU to verify it’s as much as it.
Most new PC gaming PSUs have a 16-pin energy connector of some description now, however two is a rarity. There are methods round this, although. You need to use an adapter to transform 8-pin PCIe energy sockets to 16-pin ones, for instance, however you’d additionally should be positive your PSU has a beefy 12V rail.
Two 16-pin energy connectors might draw quite a lot of 12V energy too, and the 12V rail will even be closely utilized by your CPU. If you happen to’re planning to place an overclocked RTX 5090 in a Core i9 14900K system, it’s possible you’ll nicely find yourself needing a severe energy provide in your rig.
For extra details about what we count on to see in Nvidia’s subsequent flagship gaming GPU, try our RTX 5090 information, the place we share the whole lot we all know up to now in regards to the new Blackwell chip.
