Some MSI 800-Series Motherboards May Include A 8-Pin Power Connector, Possibly for Use with Next-Gen Graphics Cards

Peter_Brosdahl

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The discovery of the extra power connector was seen at GamesCom by tech media outlet Cowcotland who was given an unofficial statement from MSI reps that the connector is intended for next-gen AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards.

See full article...
 
Having not talked to anyone about it, I have a different guess - it could be to enable 100w PD over USBC/thunderbolt port. We've had other boards with a bonus 6 pin connector for this - I don't remember the PD wattage, but 65w would jive with a 6 pin....
 
David_Schroth said:
Having not talked to anyone about it, I have a different guess - it could be to enable 100w PD over USBC/thunderbolt port. We've had other boards with a bonus 6 pin connector for this - I don't remember the PD wattage, but 65w would jive with a 6 pin....
Click to expand...
Yes having a high power output USB c to charge phone and tablets would be nice. S would peer to peer over USBC for file movement could be nice too.
 
David_Schroth said:
Having not talked to anyone about it, I have a different guess - it could be to enable 100w PD over USBC/thunderbolt port. We've had other boards with a bonus 6 pin connector for this - I don't remember the PD wattage, but 65w would jive with a 6 pin....
Click to expand...
It's not making any sense to me. The article speculation has it going to the adjacent PCIe slot - which, okay, but you're clearly going way out of the bounds of the PCIe spec, so what, a custom card we think? Which would make sense for Thunderbolt, but since USB4 is being required by AMD, then... what?

The placement by the bottom edge, as opposed to by the front edge near the 24-pin ATX power connector, is a source of confusion. Typically that extra connector adjacent to an internal USB-C header.

Maybe the answer is as dumb as we think it is...
 
On one hand we have an unofficial statement from MSI via Cowcotland/VideoCardz stating this is intended for GPU.

On the other, as @David_Schroth said there have been 6-pin connectors in the past for USB and this would make a lot more sense given the placement at the bottom of the board. The source article(s) also mention this past solution.

What's the world coming to? Rear connectors for GPUs, 6 and 8 pin for who knows what. Rember the days when the motherboard was used to connect whatever peripherals your PC needed? oh wait . . . ;)
 
The new Asus Hero board has also an 8 pin near the 24 pin
 
I guess it sortof makes sense.

Between the some 144w the 24-pin ATX connector can deliver (at 12v) and the 336w an 8-pin 12v EPS connector can deliver to the motherboard, that is a total of of 480w.

Most motherboards (with CPU, RAM and everything else on board) aren't going to use anywhere near that. Might as well share 150w of it with a GPU to make cabling more flexible, especially since it is rare for all but high end PSU's to have enough connections/cables to support more than two 8-pin GPU connectors and an 8-pin EPS connector at the same time.
 
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