What power cables does the RTX 4000 series use?
Up to 600W on a new connector to provide enough for the new power hungry cards would mean a lot of cabling
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The new RTX 4000 series graphics cards bring better performance for demanding games, raytracing, and AI-backed applications. And with a power usage of up to 450 watts, the Lovelace generation seems to be getting a significant increase in power consumption and, thus, power supply.
The RTX 4090 has a 450W total board power, meaning you need at least an 850W unit. The RTX 4080 12GB (285W), however, requires a 700W power supply, while the RTX 4080 16GB (320W) will need a 750W unit.
For their latest RTX 40 series cards, Nvidia decided to use their new PCle Gen 5 power connectors (12VHPWR) as they help with improvement in airflow inside the case and also reduce cable clutter. This cable can supply up to 600W of power, which is 4x the wattage of a traditional 8-pin PCIe cable.
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC
Core Clock Speed
2,640 MHz boost
CUDA Cores
16,384
Memory Size
24GB GDDR6X
Dimensions
357.6 x 149.3 x 70.1mm
PSU Required
1000W
TDP
450W
Nvidia will also offer an adapter with either three 8-pins or four 8-pins to a single 12VHPWR cable. This will allow consumers to use the GPUs on older power supplies. Some of us would be concerned about the 12VHPWR’s brittle life span. However, the 30-cycle specification is the same for any PCIe or ATX connectors that have been used for the last 20 years and more, and it’s unlikely that the typical user will plug and unplug the connector consistently.
So as long as you have a suitable adaptor that comes from a reputable vendor with power supply capacity that meets Nvidia’s wattage recommendations, you don’t need to upgrade.
However, if yours don’t comply with the requirements, you should probably pick up the new PCIe 5.0 power connector (12VHPWR). As the stability of your whole build depends on the Power Supply Unit, it’s always better to spend a little more than your budget than to have anything happen to your GPU.
Consider: Best power supply for the RTX 4090
