Seasonic NVIDIA Micro-Fit 3.0 8-Pin to 12-Pin PCIe Connector Pictured

NVIDIA‘s most anticipated GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards are expected to be announced in a week’s time. Only a few more days and we’ll finally see what the RTX 30 series, based on Ampere, is capable of. Recently, a custom PCB of an RTX 3090/3080 was leaked ahead of its official announcement. Then somebody uploaded a photo of the RTX 3090 including “prices” of the upcoming cards. And now, photos of the “NVIDIA 12-pin PCIe Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 Connector” from Seasonic surfaced as well. This confirms that the RTX 30 series card will be using a new PCIe power connector. Or at least the “Founders Edition” cards will feature a new (dual) 12-pin PCIe power connector.

UPDATE: GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics Cards available on Newegg.com here, B&H Photo here

Seasonic’s NVIDIA Micro-Fit 3.0 8-Pin to 12-Pin PCIe Power Connector

Here is a first look at the new 12-pin PCIe power connector. It is expected to be featured in the upcoming RTX 30 series graphics cards. Not only does the new PCIe power connector have more pins, but it is also smaller thus the name “Micro-Fit”. However, I’m not sure why this is version 3.0 already. Haven’t seen or heard the first and 2.0 before.

The power connector or adapter converts two 8-pin PCIe power connectors to a single 12-pin connector. So, this basically means that if the RTX 3090 or the RTX 3080 will require two 12-pin PCIe power connector, you will need to use 4x 8-pin PCIe power from the PSU or power supply. It’s also mentioned on the box that the recommended PSU should be at least 850W or higher to use the Micro-Fit 3.0 adapter.

HardwareLuxx.de posted these photos yesterday. I’m not sure if they are under embargo or not, but they just posted it anyway. In addition to the photos above, @aschilling also tweeted a photo of the 12-pin PCIe power connector next to a two 8-pin power connector on a graphics card. No, that’s not Photoshopped or edited in any way. The new 12-pin PCIe power connector is really small.

Do You Need To Buy A New PSU For The RTX 30 Series GPUs?

UPDATE (9/3/2020): Now that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 are official, we can safely answer this question. NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series Founders Edition will use the new 12-pin PCIe connector. However, NVIDIA will include the necessary 8-pin to 12-pin adapter in the box. For custom cards from AIB partners, they will use the old 8-pin connectors. Most custom cards have three 8-pin connectors, while some models will only require two 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

Well, there are several things that we don’t know yet. First is, we don’t know if the new 12-pin PCIe power connectors will also be implemented on graphics cards from AIB partners. Remember that the leaked PCB doesn’t feature the 12-pin PCIe power connectors. Instead, it uses three 8-pin power connectors.

Also, if ever the 12-pin PCIe power connector will become the new standard, I’m sure that NVIDIA and its partner will bundle an 8-pin to 12-pin connector together with their graphics cards. Just look at the packaging of the current and previous-generation cards. Most AIB partners still include a 4-pin Molex to PCIe adapter. So, expect that they would do the same for the next-gen graphics cards if ever.

Finally, I think PSU manufacturers will start to release power supplies with a new 12-pin PCIe power connector(s). The only time that you may need to upgrade or change your power supply is if it doesn’t meet the minimum requirement for the RTX 30 series graphics cards. Perhaps you may be using an older 400W or 500W and the new GPUs will require at least 750W or more.

Anyway, nothing is final yet at this point. We have no solid information aside from the reports and leaks surfacing on the web. And all will be revealed next week after the #UltimateCountdown has ended.