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As a result, it has a maximum power consumption of 170 watts. For example, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 has both types of connectors. The most power-hungry graphics cards come with a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector. If the GPU requires more than 150 watts, it will come with an 8-pin connector or two 6-pin connectors.Īs always, there are exceptions. 8-Pin Connector An 8-pin connectorĪlthough the math might not seem right when compared to the 6-pin connector, the 8-pin connector can deliver 150 watts to a graphics card. The terms “PCI Express cables” or “PEG cables” (for PCI Express Graphics) can also be used to describe 6-pin connectors. As 150 watts will be enough for most mid-range cards, these usually feature the 6-pin power connector. This means the graphics card will use the PCI Express x16 slot and draw power directly from the PSU (Power Supply Unit).ĭespite the fact that 150 watts are enough for most graphics cards, high-end cards such as NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 require more than 320 watts and system power of 750 watts. This connector can supply the GPU with an additional 75 watts of energy. As none of these GPUs have a lot of processing power, they don’t need more than 75 watts of power. Here are a few examples of GPUs that don’t require external power: GT 1030, GTX 1050 2GB variant, RX 550, RX 460, and many others. Some feature multiple PCI Express x16 slots in order to connect more GPUs, but, as previously mentioned, this increases the power requirement.
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Motherboards come with the aforementioned PCI Express x16 slot that can provide a maximum of 75 watts of power.
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