NVIDIA has started selling its flagship RTX 3090 Ti, which it first showed at CES 2022. The Founders Edition of the RTX 3090 Ti is the same size as the RTX 3090 and takes up 3 slots, but it uses the new 16-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector.
Previously, NVIDIA fitted the Founders Edition cards in the GeForce RTX 30 series with a compact 12-pin MOLEX MicroFit 3.0 power connector. Its position on the front edge of the card drew complaints from quite a few users, who found it hard to route cables to and not very attractive. Even so, the MicroFit connector appeared only on NVIDIA's own FE cards. AIB partners such as Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte kept using the standard 8-pin or 6-pin PCIe power connectors on their RTX 30 series models. With the GeForce RTX 40 series, however, partners will adopt the 16-pin PCIe 5.0 standard because of rising power demands.
The 16-pin PCIe 5.0 connector, also known as 12VHPWR, is a new standard that replaces the 150 W 8-pin connector. A single connector can now deliver up to 600 W, and the cable has 12 power wires plus 4 signal wires. The signal wires make sure a connection is established between the PSU and the graphics card, and they also tell the PSU when the card needs more than 450 W. Without that signal, the PSU supplies a maximum of 450 W through the connector. Replacing multiple cables with a single PCIe 5.0 16-pin cable solves quite a few problems: it makes building a PC simpler and also improves airflow.
The RTX 3090 Ti is the first graphics card to use the 16-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector. With existing PSUs, the RTX 3090 Ti uses an adapter that takes power from two 8-pin connectors and converts it to a 16-pin PCIe 5.0 connector, for a maximum of 300 W.
The Founders Edition of the RTX 3090 Ti is similar in size to the RTX 3090 Founders Edition, takes up 3 slots, and also has a push-n-pull cooling system with 2 fans spinning in opposite directions. According to early reports, the RTX 3090 Ti performs 5 to 10% better than the RTX 3090 at 4K. Its advantage comes from upgraded 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory.
Today, several AIB partners are also launching custom RTX 3090 Ti models. Earlier, EVGA revealed its FTW3 version, Colorful has the BattleAx Deluxe, Vulcan, and Neptune versions, and ASUS plans to release the Asus ROG Strix OC. These custom models all have thick cooling systems, use the 16-pin PCIe 5.0 connector, and draw a lot of power. For example, the ROG Strix OC has a TDP of 480 to 516 W in OC mode.
Source: Videocardz
