Radical Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 design update breaks cover

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30 series Ampere graphics cards appear to be coming with this major design change

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
(Image credit: Nvidia)

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series of graphics cards are rapidly approaching and, actually, you will be able to buy one very soon.

And from leaked benchmarks it looks like PC gamers are in for a real treat, with the 3080 Ti reportedly delivering a straight 30% performance increase over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition.

Now, though, it appears that increased performance is not the only thing that is changing for the "Ampere" generation of graphics cards. That's because, as reported by wccftech, the RTX 30 series looks set to adopt a brand new power interface.

The GeForce RTX 30 series leak comes originally from Chinese tech outlet FCPOWERUP, and reports that Nvidia is equipping its reference cards with a new 12-pin power interface design. You can see the 12-pin power connection below.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

(Image credit: FCPOWERUP)

As can be seen from the power interface image above, the new 12-pin looks like two 6-pins joined together. Interestingly, the report also mentions that there's a secondary 4-pin interface next to the 12-pin, although the purpose of this is not known right now.

This new power delivery interface is hypothesised to be coming on graphics cards based on the PG142 board number, and specifically the GA102/GA104 GPU varieties, which include the RTX 3080 Ti and high end 30 series cards.

Most importantly, though, it appears at this stage that these new cards will still be able to be powered by two 6-pin connectors joined together, meaning that any PC gamer who doesn't have one of these new 12-pin power connections, won't have to immediately buy a brand new power supply when upgrading to a Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series GPU.

Robert Jones

Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.