Over the weekend, we got some of the first pictures of a production-grade NVIDIA 12-pin graphics card power connector that debuts with the company’s GeForce “Ampere” Founders Edition graphics cards. HardwareLuxx.de received a set of modular cables by Seasonic that can be plugged into the company’s modular PSUs, directly putting out a 12-pin connector. The publication’s editor Andreas Schilling posted this striking picture that is sure to change our perspective about the 12-pin connector – it is tiny!
Called the Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 12-pin connector, the NVIDIA 12-pin connector looks visibly smaller than a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, and only slightly broader. It yet uses high gauge wires and pins, so it can push up to 600 W of power – more power than two 8-pin connectors. The space-saving connector shouldn’t just be easier to plug in, but also cable-manage, since you’re only having to wrestle with one cable, even for a high-end graphics card. Not only is the connector NVIDIA-exclusive, but there are also indications that only the Founders Edition (reference design) GeForce “Ampere” cards feature it, while custom-design cards based on the GPUs make do with a bunch of 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
