What is the point of TWO 8-pin EPS connectors on newer Intel motherboards?

[Quartz11]

Could anyone knowledgeable about this topic in technical terms please provide an explanation.

 

I've noticed that even the basic Z590 motherboards, such as the smaller mATX models, now come with at least an 8pin and a 4-pin EPS sockets, and many (like my ASRock Z590 Steel Legend) actually have 2 8pin EPS sockets. 

 

In theory, going up to the most power-hungry LGA 1200 processor being ~i9 10900K/F: what's the benefit of two whole 8-pin EPS sockets?  Is it for the tiny handful of people who will be doing LN overclocking?  I imagine that's a feature that would be included in some higher end boards targeted for such extreme overclockers, not a more mid-low range Z590 board.  Why not cap at 8-pin + 4-pin?  

 

I see quite a few questions from new owners of Z590 (and some Z490) motherboards, asking whether they need to connect the second 8-pin socket, and the answer given to them is frequently "no, just leave it unplugged, it should be enough power to the CPU".  If a CPU needs a little more, 8+4 is enough, but 8+8?

[Skiiwee29]

Mostly marketing gimmicks/tricks. Absolutely not necessary in 95% use cases. 

[dean_5234]

3 minutes ago, Quartz11 said:

Could anyone knowledgeable about this topic in technical terms please provide an explanation.

 

I've noticed that even the basic Z590 motherboards, such as the smaller mATX models, now come with at least an 8pin and a 4-pin EPS sockets, and many (like my ASRock Z590 Steel Legend) actually have 2 8pin EPS sockets. 

 

In theory, going up to the most power-hungry LGA 1200 processor being ~i9 10900K/F: what's the benefit of two whole 8-pin EPS sockets?  Is it for the tiny handful of people who will be doing LN overclocking?  I imagine that's a feature that would be included in some higher end boards targeted for such extreme overclockers, not a more mid-low range Z590 board.  Why not cap at 8-pin + 4-pin?  

 

I see quite a few questions from new owners of Z590 (and some Z490) motherboards, asking whether they need to connect the second 8-pin socket, and the answer given to them is frequently "no, just leave it unplugged, it should be enough power to the CPU".  If a CPU needs a little more, 8+4 is enough, but 8+8?

extreme overclocking. not necessary for 99% of people

[Quartz11]

Right, but as I mentioned, extreme overclockers are usually not going to be doing extreme overclocking on budget Z590 boards, are they?  Usually each brand has one-two high end boards intended for extreme overclockers.  Moreover boards like my ASRock Z590 Steel Legend actually have voltages set to intel's default spec, without any hidden "auto" boosts (part of the reason I liked it, along with features and price)...  yet the board still has 2 8-pin EPS sockets.

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, Quartz11 said:

Right, but as I mentioned, extreme overclockers are usually not going to be doing extreme overclocking on budget Z590 boards, are they?  Usually each brand has one-two high end boards intended for extreme overclockers.  Moreover boards like my ASRock Z590 Steel Legend actually have voltages set to intel's default spec, without any hidden "auto" boosts...  yet the board still has 2 8-pin EPS sockets.

Most people also aren't going to use 10 gigabit, but it's on a lot of them. There's a lot of stuff on motherboards that most people wont use. Why do we have 2-3 m.2 slots and 6 SATA connectors?

Why do ALL of the AMD chipsets have HDMI and DP connectors on the rear IO?

 

[Quartz11]

4 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Most people also aren't going to use 10 gigabit, but it's on a lot of them. There's a lot of stuff on motherboards that most people wont use. Why do we have 2-3 m.2 slots and 6 SATA connectors?

Why do ALL of the AMD chipsets have HDMI and DP connectors on the rear IO?

 

Fair enough   

 

I thought (hoped) there really was some good technical reason for it.

 

I guess it's there to confuse the buyers about their PSU cable compatibility 

[SorryBella]

5 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Most people also aren't going to use 10 gigabit, but it's on a lot of them. There's a lot of stuff on motherboards that most people wont use. Why do we have 2-3 m.2 slots and 6 SATA connectors?

Why do ALL of the AMD chipsets have HDMI and DP connectors on the rear IO?

 

Possibly an attempt to get every single people to get that particular board? Its possible that people would love to see all of these features on a dedicated kind of board by the same vein of MSI pro series with dedicated 4 or more 1x ports because of bitcoin mining way back then, or Asus shortlived ProArt motherboard which includes a lot of stuff that a 4K video editors would want like dual TB3 and 10 gig cards, but that board manufacturers see the number and say that its not worth the dedicated product stack when the trend ends, so they slap the feature of dedicated board to other more "mainstream" boards.

[Quartz11]

There are so many different boards though in the Z590 series.  There are even separate SKUs with and without WiFi card included.  

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16347/the-intel-z590-overview

 

^ 50+ motherboards!  I was pretty shocked when building a new system this year -- there did not used to be such redundant variety.

 

(The curious thing to me is that they all have fairly few USB ports on the mid-low end.  You really need to pay significantly more to get more USB ports--which would be a useful thing for a lot of users--as opposed to including more over-the-top features that only a small percentage of buyers would use.  Why does my motherboard have only 5 standard USB ports and 1 USB-C, as a standard ATX?  The back plate has room for plenty more.)

[Ankerson]

1 hour ago, Quartz11 said:

Could anyone knowledgeable about this topic in technical terms please provide an explanation.

 

I've noticed that even the basic Z590 motherboards, such as the smaller mATX models, now come with at least an 8pin and a 4-pin EPS sockets, and many (like my ASRock Z590 Steel Legend) actually have 2 8pin EPS sockets. 

 

In theory, going up to the most power-hungry LGA 1200 processor being ~i9 10900K/F: what's the benefit of two whole 8-pin EPS sockets?  Is it for the tiny handful of people who will be doing LN overclocking?  I imagine that's a feature that would be included in some higher end boards targeted for such extreme overclockers, not a more mid-low range Z590 board.  Why not cap at 8-pin + 4-pin?  

 

I see quite a few questions from new owners of Z590 (and some Z490) motherboards, asking whether they need to connect the second 8-pin socket, and the answer given to them is frequently "no, just leave it unplugged, it should be enough power to the CPU".  If a CPU needs a little more, 8+4 is enough, but 8+8?

 

 

It balances the power draw out better for those of us who do OC.

 

The MB will indeed use BOTH EPS connections if they are connected.

 

So if one doesn't connect BOTH and has stability issues then they will need to plug them Both in.

 

If one has the PSU with the connections there is no reason NOT to plug both of them in.