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NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply

The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, and any other Ampere card using the new 12-pin PCIe adapter, requires an 850W PSU.

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Gaming Editor
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14 minutes & 45 seconds read time

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards will be unveiled on September 1, with the introduction (and requirement on RTX 30 series Founders Edition cards) of a new 12-pin PCIe power adapter.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply 10

In a recent finding on Bilibili, the new 12-pin PCIe power connector was spotted -- this time, from Seasonic. But as you can see on the box, the adapter turns 2 x existing 8-pin PCIe power connectors into a single 12-pin PCIe power connector.

Seasonic is recommending that you have an 850W power supply or higher, to use this new 12-pin PCIe power connector. That's pretty crazy, as a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti only "requires" a 650W PSU.

Note: just because you've got an 850W PSU that doesn't mean the RTX 3090 uses 850W, but it's definitely going to use 100W+ more than the RTX 2080 Ti if this PSU recommendation is anything to go by. That's an additional 200W of headroom for any card powered by the 12-pin PCIe power adapter.

  • GeForce RTX 3090: $1399
  • GeForce RTX 3080: $799
  • GeForce RTX 3070: $599
  • GeForce RTX 3060: $399
NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply 22

The very latest: RTX 3090 PCB + GDDR6X @ 21Gbps

  • The PCB of the RTX 3090: A juicy leak of the purported PCB of a custom variant of the GeForce RTX 3090 leaked out a few days ago. It is reportedly the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 3090 Vulcan-X. You can see this model has 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, unlike the RTX 3090 Founders Edition that should pack just a single 12-pin PCIe power connector.
  • Micron reveals RTX 3090 name, 24GB GDDR6X memory @ 21Gbps: I'm sure this is part of the marketing or else all of us tech media websites would be receiving calls from lawyers, but Micron revealed its next-gen GDDR6X memory that the GeForce RTX 3090 (it admits the card by name) will be clocked at a bonkers-high 21Gbps.
NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply 24NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply 25

Wait, a 12-pin PCIe power connector?

More reading:

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply 444
  • Traversal coprocessor: We have had more leaks on NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 3000 series than any family of graphics cards before it, with an interesting "traversal coprocessor" on the new GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards. You can read more on that here.
  • NVCache: Ampere is meant to have something called NVCache, which would be NVIDIA's own form of AMD's HBCC (High Bandwidth Cache Controller, more on that here). NVCache would use your system RAM and SSD to super-speed game load times, as well as optimizing VRAM usage. You can read more on NVCache here.
  • Tensor Memory Compression: NVCache is interesting, but Tensor Memory Compression will be on Ampere, and will reportedly use Tensor Cores to both compress and decompress items that are stored in VRAM. This could see a 20-40% reduction in VRAM usage, or more VRAM usage with higher textures in next-gen games and Tensor Memory Compression decreasing that VRAM footprint by 20-40%.
  • NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 will require a huge 850W power supply 17
  • How fast is the GeForce RTX 3090? Freaking fast according to rumors, with 60-90% more performance than the current Turing-based flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. We could see this huge performance leap in ray tracing titles, but we'll have to wait a little while longer to see how much graphical power NVIDIA crams into these new cards. You can read more on those rumors here.
  • Power hungry: As for power consumption, GA102 reportedly uses 230W -- while 24GB of GDDR6X (which we should see on the new Ampere-based TITAN RTX) consumes 60W of power. You can read more on that here.
  • Production begins soon: NVIDIA is reportedly in the DVT (or Design Validation Test) range of its new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards. Mass production reportedly kicks off in August 2020, with a media event, benchmarks, and more in September 2020 as I predicted many months ago. More on that here.
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I've already written about rumors that NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere GPU architecture would be up to 75% faster than current-gen GPUs such as the Turing architecture, right after rumors that Ampere would offer 50% more performance at half the power of Turing. This is pretty crazy stuff right there.

Not only that, but we've got some rumored specs on the purported GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards, which will both be powered by NVIDIA's new Ampere GPU architecture.

We've already heard that Ampere would offer 50% more performance at half the power of Turing, which sent the hairs on my neck standing up. Better yet, you can read about the leaked specs on the purported Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 right here.

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Even more reading:

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NEWS SOURCE:videocardz.com
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Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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