MSI explained why it added an additional PCIe power connector to boards with X870 and X870E

Earlier this month, MSI introduced motherboards based on AMD X870 and X870E chipsets. Among other things, the new items were equipped with an additional 8-pin PCIe power connector. Only now, in preparation for the release of the boards, the manufacturer explained the purpose of this connector.

Image source: MSI

According to MSI, the additional 8-pin connector is designed to provide stable power to high-power graphics cards, or graphics cards that can consume up to 2.5 times more power during peak load. The presence of this connector ensures that the motherboard will support stable operation of the GPU under high gaming loads or when working with “heavy” applications.

MSI motherboards based on AMD X870 and X870E chipsets comply with ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 standards, which have more stringent power requirements. One of the requirements is the presence of an additional 8-pin PCIe power connector.

As an example, MSI cites the new X870 MAG Tomahawk board, running in a system with a Ryzen 9 9950X processor and a GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X graphics card. The motherboard is connected to the power supply via a 24-pin 12 V connector, which can supply up to 168 V to the board. Watts of power. Other components such as fans, RGB lighting and the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card itself, which can consume up to 75 W through the PCIe x16 slot, are also powered through this connector. Please note that this does not take into account EPS connectors, which only serve to power the processor.

An additional 8-pin power connector on the motherboard is designed to provide additional power headroom for the graphics card, allowing the board, when combined with the 24-pin connector, to deliver a total of up to 420 watts of power to the GPU. According to MSI, the 8-pin connector itself can deliver an additional 252 Watts.

It is reported that MSI X870(E) series motherboards with additional PCIe power will be available on September 26th. Notably, this announcement goes against earlier reports that new Ryzen 9000 motherboards would go on sale on September 30th.