A new 12-pin PCIe power adapter, reportedly to be used on Nvidia Ampere generation graphics cards, has been identified by the power supply manufacturer. This new connector takes the 2x8-pin power supply directly from the PSU and reduces it to a single 12-pin connector.

What was not obvious in the initial rumors, but was not revealed until Andreas Schilling of HardwareLuxx obtained the Seasonic connector, is the size of this new 12-pin configuration. considerably smaller than a 2x8-pin connection, and with one 8 pin connector and occupies roughly the same footprint as a single 8-pin connector.

Seasonic officially calls this new connector the "Nvidia 12-pin PCIe Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 Connector," suggesting that it is exactly the same as the proprietary connector specified for the next generation of Nvidia graphics cards (likely the RTX 30 series) This suggests that it is exactly the same as the proprietary connector specified for the next generation Nvidia graphics cards (presumably the RTX 30 series).

It is speculated that Nvidia's Founders Edition cards will be the first and only cards to use this new connector, but no official confirmation of its eventual use has been received so far.

It is also unclear how this connector and compatible adapters will be distributed to users. Presumably, all cards that require the use of this connector will come with an adapter cable. However, since not all PSUs follow the same pinout, that cable may need to be extended rather than directly to the PSU.

A traditional 8-pin PCIe connector (or 6+2 pins) has three +12V pins and five ground pins and can supply 150 watts per connector to the graphics card.

According to HardwareLuxx, the new 12-pin connector has six +12V pins, four ground pins, and two Sense pins (used to indicate what configuration the connector is used in and (as with 8-pin and 6-pin connectors) to adjust power delivery is adjusted accordingly) are provided.

As noted on the box exterior, Seasonic power connectors recommend a PSU capacity of 850W or more for graphics cards used with the cable.

Intel is also trying to reshape gaming PC power supplies with ATX12VO specifications, removing the burden of 3.3V and 5V conversion from the PSU and integrating it into the motherboard. It may be some time before the entire industry follows suit, though.