21–30 of 526 posts
If we’re going to keep up these kilowatt scale cards, we’re just going to need higher voltage rails on PSUs. I had a bunch of similar dumb power connector problems when my 4090 was new.
This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…
This shit is so fucking dumb. Sorry for the unhinged rant, but it's ridiculous how bad every single connector involved with building a PC is in 2025. I'm just a software guy, so maybe some hardware engineer can chime in (and I'd love to find out exactly what I'm missing and why it might be harder than it seems), but why on earth can everything not just be easily accessible and click nicely into place? I'm paying mult…
What's wrong with the 4/6/8 pin plugs? I find them perfectly good. And they have a high power variant that would have worked much better here, rated for twice the current per pin.
It's strange how Nvidia just doubled down on a flawed design for no apparent reason. It doesn't even do anything, the adapter is so short you still have the same mess of cables in the front of the case as before.
I was under the impression it saves them money. Is that correct? It is also a powerplay. By potentially introducing a PSU connector AMD and Intel do not use they abuse their market power to limit interoperability. Plus probably some internal arrogance about not admitting failures.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with the 4/6/8 pin plugs? I find them perfectly good. And they have a high power variant that would have worked much better here, rated for twice the current per pin.
They're the best of the bunch when it comes to PC parts, but think how far off they are in terms of usability compared to USB, or Ethernet, or HDMI, or Displayport, or those old VGA cables you had to screw in, or literally anything else. They only look good in comparison to the other power connectors.
Those connectors were not designed to carry power.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was under the impression it saves them money. Is that correct? It is also a powerplay. By potentially introducing a PSU connector AMD and Intel do not use they abuse their market power to limit interoperability. Plus probably some internal arrogance about not admitting failures.
The connector is a PCI spec, it's not an Nvidia thing, it's just they introduced devices using it first.
Why can’t they just use a cable+socket similar to PSU - wall socket? It’s not even multiple-kilowatts range.
Thankfully, I've never seen something like it since then.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The connector is a PCI spec, it's not an Nvidia thing, it's just they introduced devices using it first.
I don't think thats correct. Nvidia used that connector first and then a similar PCI spec came out. Compatibility is limited. See https://www.hwcooling.net/en/nvidia-12pin-and-pcie-5-0-gpu-p... from back then.
Why can’t they just use a cable+socket similar to PSU - wall socket? It’s not even multiple-kilowatts range.
I'm aware of at least one card which did this, which was a custom OEM design (specifically from Asus) which put two Geforce 7000-series GPUs on a single card: https://pcper.com/2005/10/asus-n7800gt-dual-review-7800-sli-... Thankfully, I've never seen something like it since then.
[1] https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/325466-i-wrote-the-first-...
[2] https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/voodoo5-6000.c3536
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So heat depends on current, not on power. My research: https://www.reddit.com/r/ElectricalEngineering/comments/15xf...
No it depends on power, but the power dissipated by the cable, not the power through the cable. The power dissipated is i^2 * r, where r is the resistance of the cable and i, crucially, is the current through the cable which depends on the power it's supplying (which with a resistive load, in this case, is i * 12v).
Using a larger diameter wire would drop resistance in the cable, but if it has to go through the same connector, it will likely still get hot.
Also, NVDA might be telling the truth about poorly seated connectors, that could raise resistance and heat significantly. That could also be handwaving away a business decision to move forward with a design with too little margin.