Graphics card says goodbye to external power supply PCI-E 4.0 supports up to 500W

During the Intel IDF conference, we saw some companies showcasing PCI-E 4.0 devices. The new standard's x1 channel speed will be increased from the current 8GT/s of PCI-E 3.0 to 16GT/s, further increasing bandwidth and reducing latency. PCI-E 5.0, which will double the speed again, is also on the way.

Even if ordinary consumers are not sensitive to speed increases, another good news may make you more excited - starting from PCI-E 4.0, the power supply capacity of the graphics card slot may be greatly improved, from the current 75 watts to hundreds of watts, with a minimum of 300 watts, and possibly reaching 400-500 watts.

We all know that the power supply capacity of the PCI-E slot is capped at 75W, a standard that has existed since the PCI-E 1.0a standard in 2003. Although motherboard manufacturers can also provide additional 4-pin power supply interfaces to increase the slot power supply capacity to 150W, this design is not available on all motherboards, and is only available on some high-end overclocking motherboards.

In our daily life, the power supply of the PCI-E x16 slot of the motherboard mainly comes from 3A/3.3V and 5.5A/12V. The latter has a power supply capacity of 66W. This is also the reason why many people said that the AMD graphics card exceeded the 66W safe power supply limit in the previous AMD RX 480 power theft incident, and believed that the graphics card's excessive power consumption would affect the safety of the motherboard.

At AMD's Zen architecture conference, they also showed the 32-core Naples server processor and its platform. The picture above is a dual-slot server motherboard, which has four 8-pin and two 6-pin power supply interfaces in addition to the 20-pin motherboard power supply. Tomshardware also asked about this design in an interview with Richard Solomon, vice president of PCI-SIG, and the answer he got was very exciting.

Richard Solomon said that the PCI-SIG organization will improve the power supply capacity of the interface on a large scale for the first time. He did not announce specific power supply indicators, but said that the minimum is 300W and may be increased to 400-500W.

Not to mention 500W, even 300W power supply can meet the power supply requirements of most graphics cards at present. Except for some dual-core cards that may exceed 300W, NVIDIA's top-level Titan X graphics card has a typical power consumption of only 250W, and the mainstream power consumption of other 16nm/14nm new architecture graphics cards is within 200W.

If PCI-E 4.0 really achieves large-scale power supply, it will definitely be a blessing for graphics cards. AMD graphics cards will never have the RX 480 power stealing incident again. Without auxiliary power supply, players will have less trouble with chassis space and cable management.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.