Graphics Card - what's the point of all the power connectors. Why not a single 8pin (when there 2 8 or 8 + 6), Now we have a 3 x 8pin 3080 card.

[ross06187]

I been thinking, which is never good.

 

I was wondering why graphics card manufacturers put 2 8 pin connectors on there cards, when 99% of people plug them in with a single cable (we all do it) that daisy chains 2 8 pins into the 1 cable.  Surely as it connected outside the card its effectively getting the same thing as if there was a single 8 pin connector.  NOW there is a 3 8pin 3080 on the market, WTF.  Is this so people actually run 2 cables now, or should we have been running 2 sperate cable all along.  My understanding is, within the power supply all the cables are going onto the same power rail anyway so it really about getting more copper between the PSU and the GPU?

 

For example;

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/77042/gigabyte-updates-aorus-rtx-3080-master-adds-3rd-8-pin-pcie-connector/index.html

 

The only thing i can think of is the connector has a limited (design capacity) so they use more, but then the GPU connection must be overloaded.

[porina]

Connector rating. The 8 pin connectors are rated to 150W each. If you want more than 150W, you need more than one connector. If you choose a fat enough cable that isn't the limit, so you can daisy chain the connectors. 

 

A two connector design could take 300W, plus up to 75W from PCIe connector. This covers most uses. Three connector designs are usually high end designs intended for extreme overclocking where the extra power can make a difference.

 

Note rated means what it is designed to cope with during its life. If you push it right to its limit, it can be a LOT higher, but people would likely get upset if there's melting plastic on their expensive GPU.

[Moonzy]

Basically it's a standard

 

Every 8-pin can supply 150W, if a card needs more than 150W, it needs to have more than one 8-pin (let's ignore slot power for now)

 

PSU manufacturer uses daisy chain cabling because they know their cable can supply 300W just fine

 

So technically yes, we could use 1 8pin connector for 300W, but that's misleading if someone with PSU that's not capable of delivering 300W on a single 8-pin plugs it in and it goes up in flames