RTX 4080 & RTX 4090: Nvidia clarifies what is finally true with power supplies
Trying to reassure stakeholders
Some of the most common questions the community has about the highly anticipated RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 graphics cards are related to their power consumption and power supplies. In particular, with its new models, Nvidia makes the transition to the PCIe Gen5 power connector for powering the cards, which means that the 8-pin connections of the current power supplies cannot be used without a special adapter.
What has come to peak the concerns of those concerned is the PCI-SIG warning, which, as we informed you, talked about adapters that under certain conditions may even melt, with the risk of even causing a fire, in extreme cases.
Wanting to clarify the landscape and reassure those concerned, Nvidia has now posted a new FAQ section on its official website, providing answers. Below you can find some of the most important ones regarding power supply problems, while the company’s entire post can be found by clicking here.
PCI-SIG warned of potential overcurrent/overpower risk with 12VHPWR connectors when using non-ATX 3.0 power supplies & Gen 5 adapters. Why did PCI-SIG issue this warning and how does this affect NVIDIA’s new products?
New NVIDIA products are not affected. During the early stages of development and testing we identified a potential issue with an adapter manufactured by a single vendor. As a PCI-SIG member, we notified the vendor, asked them to fix it (which they did), and shared our findings to help other vendors implementing the new standard. PCI-SIG forwarded this information.
Why is there only a 30 cycle life on PCIe Gen 5 connectors?
The 30 cycle specification is the same as it has been for at least 20 years for existing PCIe/ATX 8pin connections. It has not changed with PCIe Gen5 connections or adapters.
Are the RTX 40 Series Adapters “smart” enough that when connected to an ATX 2.0 power supply they will properly regulate the GPU power?
Yes. The adapter has active circuits inside that translate the state of the 8-pin connectors into the corresponding signals described by the PCIe Gen 5 (ATX 3.0) specifications.
What does a ‘smart’ power adapter mean?
The adapter has an active circuit that detects and reports the graphics card’s power capability based on the number of connected 8-pin connectors. This allows the RTX 4090 to increase the margin for overclocking accordingly, when 4x 8-pin connections are used instead of 3x 8-pin connections.
So, after the company clarified the landscape, it also released two related infographics that present everything that someone needs to do to prepare their system, before it can accept the new RTX 4090 and RTX 4080. These instructions follow below.
Official instructions for preparing your PC for RTX 4090:
Official instructions for preparing your PC for RTX 4080:
