Launched a few days ago, the Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards will be available soon. Both are based on Navi 32 GPUs of various modifications and are equipped with standard 8-pin power connectors. However, this was not AMD’s original plan.
Image source: AMD
Speaking to Club386, Scott Herkelman, VP of Graphics at AMD Radeon, announced that the company was considering using the 12+4-pin 12VHPWR power connector in the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards, but ultimately decided against it. .
“For the RX 7900 and RX 7600 models, we did not consider using a new power cable, but we did consider using it in the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT models. However, at some point we gave up on this idea. And it was the right decision. Don’t put your problems on users’ shoulders. You must identify and fix any problems the same way we solved the problem with our vapor chamber. [в составе эталонной системы охлаждения старших видеокарт RX 7900]. Back then, I was constantly watching social media because I figured it was AMD’s problem, so I had to fix it.”said Herkelman.
The vice president added that the new power connector will not appear in their graphics cards until all the shortcomings and issues related to the 12VHPWR power connector are resolved and the company is not sure everything will work properly for consumers. “The possibility of someone blaming graphics card owners for their problems certainly strikes AMD and I as odd.”added Herkelman.
In doing so, he angered NVIDIA, which blamed the melting and blowing of the 12VHPWR power connectors on cardholders who misconnected the connectors. However, the company recognized such cases as a guarantee.
It was recently revealed that the PCI-SIG organization is developing an updated version of the graphics card power connector to replace the original 12VHPWR. The new version of the connector was named 12V-2×6. Changes are known to have been made to the attachment mechanism, as well as the length of the contacts, which in theory should prevent misconnection. Apparently, the new version of the power connector has not yet convinced AMD of its reliability. On the other hand, the same Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT do not need a 12+4 pin connector that can transfer up to 600W of power to the accelerator. Their power consumption is 263 and 245 W respectively. A pair of conventional 8-pin connectors can easily handle this.
However, as Herkelman said, AMD will consider using 12+4 pin connectors in future products if “Any related issues will be resolved and the company will feel that these connectors are working properly.”. If Radeon graphics cards with the new connector appear in the future, they will already be models based on the RDNA 4 architecture, since the Radeon RX 7000 series is officially “finished”.
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