power supplies haven't changed that much over the years but there's a new
specification that could force you to buy a new one the next time you upgrade
your GPU it's called atx 3.0 and it was
designed by Intel specifically with high performance gpus in mind but what's
different about it let's start by talking about the most obvious part of
the new spec the power connector for your GPU
instead of the 8-pin pci express connector that we've been used to for a
long time atx 3.0 uses a 16-pin
connector called 12vhpwr which is a mouthful that stands
for 12 volts high power any power supply rated for more than 450
watts is supposed to use this new connector which is meant to simplify the
build process instead of having different graphics cards requiring
different numbers of six or eight pin connectors or even custom ones new cards
would instead just need one of these new 16 16-pin connectors
even if a particular card is on the more power-hungry side think of it kind of
like usb-c and that it's one form factor
to plug in but with different power delivery depending on the implementation
the spec recommends that the connector be labeled with how much power it
supports 150 300 450 or 600 watts though
that 600 watt option is supposed to only be used for liquid cooled cards since
that's just wow a lot of power
and remember how i said it had 16 pins well four of those pins are smaller than
the rest and they're there so that the power supply and the GPU can actually
talk to each other specifically the power supply can tell the GPU what its
capabilities are which means that if you have a beefy graphics card but a power
supply that can't quite provide all the power it might ask for the power supply
can tell the GPU hey i'm not actually that powerful and the GPU's power limit
can be lowered to accommodate it this should help prevent unexpected
instability due to a card drawing too much power though it also means that
your GPU's performance could be throttled if your power supply isn't up
to scratch so you'll need to make sure that your power supply is rated for the
amount of power that your GPU requires oh and also the rest of your system
however the 16-pin plug isn't the only thing they've changed and we'll tell you
about the other key features of atx 3.0 after we thank our sponsor see sonic how
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the links down below one of the other new atx 3.0 features also aimed at gpus
is better spike resistance the thing is gpus have a normal power draw when
they're under load like playing a game but they can also experience big
momentary spikes in power draw this is a notable issue with rtx 3000 series cards
well atx 3.0 is supposed to alleviate this by requiring any certified power
supply to be capable of providing twice
its maximum rated power for 10 straight microseconds and it has to be able to do
this for 10 of its total running time that means
that power supplies may become costlier due to the better electronics required
don't have a high-end GPU join the club well there are other
changes that still might affect you atx 3.0 should deliver better longevity with
power supplies being able to handle over 175 000 power cycles per year which is
kind of like turning your computer off and back on 480 times a day over its
lifetime and speaking of which atx 3.0
should provide faster system wake up time so i say go for it turn it on and
off as often as you want efficiency should also improve when your
system isn't working too hard as power supplies have to be above sixty percent
efficient at just 10 watts or at two
percent of their rated maximum power the spec also mentions that there will
be a new certification system from cybernetic Labs this is kind of like the
80 plus system that we're all used to but cybernetics raises power supplies
for both noise and efficiency so you should be able to get a quick idea as to
how loud your new psu will be just by looking at the box so should you budget
for a new power supply alongside your next GPU purchase
ah well remember that this is a recently published spec and it may be quite a
while before atx 3.0 power supplies hit the market if we end up seeing them at
all Intel is pushing the spec but it could meet resistance from manufacturers
if the changes end up being too costly to implement so don't go throwing out
your existing power supply just yet i mean
it works pretty hard for you and when's the last time you even told it thank you
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