Don’t be surprised if you hear these being referred to as Molex Adapters or Molex Converters. Fortunately, computers are made by engineers who like to modify hardware that isn’t suited to their needs by default.Ī company called Molex pioneered these pin connectors all the way back in the late 50s and early 60s and it has since become synonymous with the term.
#4 pin molex connector pinout Pc#
There are often compatibility issues when building a PC and power connectors are no different. NVIDIA was forthcoming regarding the availability of PSUs with 12-pin connectors, so it released an adapter that allows two 6-pin connectors to interface with its card’s 12-pin slot. This move was made out of necessity as NVIDIA desperately needed the extra power for their most powerful cards and came up with a rather elegant solution.Ī 12-pin connector is roughly the same size as an 8-pin connector, but it can draw a lot more power. With the release of NVIDIA’s RTX 3000 series, we were introduced to 12-pin power connectors.
There is also a rule of thumb that the PSU runs best when it’s at 50% capacity, but that is a different topic that should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Be careful because with great power comes a greater risk of overheating. However, if you’re building a gaming rig with an RTX 3080/3090 or if you want to future-proof it (which is almost impossible), you should choose a more powerful PSU. In any case, it’s safe to say that your machine will be properly powered with a good 650 watts PSU. An example of such a GPU is the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z. These are usually the manufacturers’ highest-end models made to provide the best possible cooling and overclocking.
In even rarer cases, there are enthusiast GPUs that require three 8-pin connectors. In addition, you still need to power the CPU (which is another big energy consumer) and the rest of your PC’s components. By simply adding the numbers together, we get a total of 375 watts, but that is an extreme amount. There are even some exceptional cases where the GPU will have two 8-pin connectors. 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 will 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 also 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 any 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. Motherboards come with the aforementioned PCI Express x16 slot that can provide a maximum of 75 watts of power.
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