Provisions for 8-pin PCIe Power Connectors Spotted on Palit GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER PCB

[T0@st]

Palit has kind of gone against the 12VHPWR grain with its GeForce RTX 4080 Super GamingPro OC graphics card—PC SIG's 16-pin power connector is the default standard for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series, but an outbreak of technical snafus has caused many to question the format's future. A new 12V-2x6 connection standard is touted as 12VHPWR's natural successor, but PC parts manufacturers continue to produce products that utilize the latter. HXL discovered a MaxSun custom GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER design that sported two completely bog standard 8-pin PCIe power connectors (in lieu of 12VHPWR), but a follow up report indicates that the Chinese board partner has scrubbed the offending item from its web presences.

Jisakuhibi Japan's review of the Palit GeForce RTX 4080 Super GamingPro OC model included close-up shots of the card's PCB—the publication's social media account noted an intriguing yet empty section: "(Palit's) board seems to be able to natively set the auxiliary power supply to PCIe 8-pin x 2 instead of 12VHPWR." The unoccupied area sits just south-east of the standard 12VHPWR connector—the provisional positioning of pin holes suggests that Palit's PCB could be designed for a separate professional graphics card solution. The company is unlikely to divulge its original intent with the placement of older auxiliary power connectors—ultimately 12VHPWR is the way forward.



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[Voodoo Rufus]

With a 320W TGP, dual 8 pins would work nicely.

These cards aren't all that large by themselves considering how powerful they are. This card in particular would be great with a custom waterblock from the factory.

 

[john_]

Soon in an online shop near you

 

[dj-electric]

Did they actually beep these with the connector using a DMM? are they wired through the board?

 

[MarsM4N]

Pretty sad they didn't ship it with the PCIe 8-pin connectors. Loads of folks would have gone for the card just for this feature.

But I guess they got road blocked by Nvidia.

 

[N/A]

Every palit 4070, Ti and 80 board since 2022 to date has them. took you long enough to notice I guess.
the heatsink is not meant to support that as it covers that area, makes it impossible.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

the heatsink is not meant to support that as it covers that area, makes it impossible.

If all you need is redesigning the heatsink and soldering these 8-pin connectors then I'm buying one of these and frankensteining it when prices drop due to Blackwell GPU release.

The reasoning is simple: because I can.

 

[john_]

If all you need is redesigning the heatsink and soldering these 8-pin connectors then I'm buying one of these and frankensteining it when prices drop due to Blackwell GPU release.

The reasoning is simple: because I can.

or just solder those 8 pin connectors on the back of the PCB.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

or just solder those 8 pin connectors on the back of the PCB.

I don't care where to solder, I only care if I need some additional actions like strap switching or some sort of reprogramming. Not an expert but I'm still free to assume it's not THAT easy.

 

[N/A]

These are not your regular 8 pins. all messed up.
The upper is 6x12V, and 2 GND,
the lower is 4 GND plus 4 pins (sense0 sense1 pwr_ok and gpu_present) all routed to the 4 pins of the 16 pin

 

[trsttte]

Did they actually beep these with the connector using a DMM? are they wired through the board?

They wouldn't have left the pads if they were not connected to anything.

These are not your regular 8 pins. all messed up.
The upper is 6x12V, and 2 GND,
the lower is 4 GND plus 4 pins (sense0 sense1 pwr_ok and gpu_present) all routed to the 4 pins of the 16 pin

View attachment 333482

Well that sucks, i guess you could solder a couple cable leads to switch the pins around, still better than the stupid 12VHPWR micro fit

 

[N/A]

No soldering, only rewire the cables differently by switching their places where needed, namely 3x12V and 3xGnd or the PSU could short and melt the connector if done wrong, only the experienced should tinker this.

 

[Random_User]

It's not only possible to get away with "just" two 8 pin, but the connector placement is proper, and there seems there's enough of room to place two of them. What a surprise.

It baffles, how nVidia couldn't manage to find the room, on the FE cards, that have the size of an actual clay brick. Yeah yeah, the PCB is short, but I doubt longer one would affect the already exorbitant price, and definitely wouldn't impact BOM that much. They just cheaping out on premium products, just because they get away with it.

Every palit 4070, Ti and 80 board since 2022 to date has them. took you long enough to notice I guess.
the heatsink is not meant to support that as it covers that area, makes it impossible.

Still feels like deliberate forcing the 12VHPWR connector, just in order to lock everyone behind their proprietary ecosystem. And also to push the PSU sales.

Considering the PCB is long enough to place the headers on the far end, the redesigning of couple of cooler fins, is least of an issue, if at all. This looks, just as MarsM4N said, being prohibited by NVidia.
This is another proof, that there was no problem in making the cards, with PCB that supports both new and "regular" connection, and not only for Palit, but for any other company as well. I totally get that Palit is a partner, but there was reason to prevent AIBs from going this route.

 

[N/A]

I believe Palit Gainward was aiming to extend the 12V HPWR similar to what Gigabyte did on their 30- series and move the connector off the board on the card's end instead in the middle.
That only obstructs the ariflow. Bad idea. although 12V HPWR will have a much smaller footprint and it might just work, but obviously was dropped or not finished on time to hit production with the cutouts needed on the heatsink side as it raised the cost too much. So they don't make provisions to keep the old connector or fight the unfairness of imposing a new standard, none of that because this has a completely different layout with all 6 12Vs put on one connector and all 6 grounds on the other.