pc gamer Intel releases the ATX 3.0 power supply spec

[ENTERPRISE]

Quote

Intel has published the final ATX 3.0 power supply specification, and it’s the biggest PSU spec change in almost 20 years. PC hardware has changed a lot since then, particularly the power requirements of GPUs. ATX 3.0 PSUs will come to market throughout 2022.

Source

 

Fingers crossed my PSU will stay alive for a good while yet anyway. 

[Mr. Fox]

I can hardly wait to see what kind of astronomically ludicrous price tag one of those with a 1600W capacity is going to carry. I anticipate that they'll be much prouder of it than they should be. Hopefully, they will keep the new standard in place for at least another 20+ years again rather than inventing new ways to milk us for more money sooner for something we don't actually need apart from the fabrication of need.

[Alastair]

What about those of us with still fairly new high end units that still have 6,7 or 8 years of warranty left? Think we will will be able to get "dumb" 12pin 12vhpwr adaptor cables? By dumb I mean adapters without the 4 sense cables. Surely dumb adapter cables will just deliver as much power as the gpu needs like our psus currently do? 

 

My psu is only a year and a bit old. I hope that I can keep using it for some time yet especially since it still has like 8 years of warranty left. 

[pio]

Yes, because we totally need a new PSU standard to deliver a whopping 600w to a GPU........ 

 

It's not like we don't have that capability already with 650w+ units being capable of 650w+ on the 12v rails alone or anything.  Obviously if you have a higher TDP GPU, you're going to need more than a 650w unit, but still.  My Seasonic 1000w is absolutely MORE than capable of this.  It just doesn't have the fancy pants new 12 pin connector, that's all.

 

The article states that there's also new efficiency standards with the new ATX spec on idle and low usage scenarios.  Okay.....but we have that already......

 

Leave it to Intel to decide the standards for us, even though we've all been on the same standard for 20 years.  (Yes, I understand that the original ATX standard is Intel's standard)  What does this ACTUALLY mean though?  Does it mean we're going to see a drastic increase in GPU power consumption, something we haven't seen to date?  We already know they're reaching the limits of the die sizes.  So maybe since they can't make things smaller, maybe now they'll start getting bigger and more power?  Or is it just a way to sell more PSU's in an inflated market?  Guess we'll see when future GPU's start popping up.  Until we have GPU's actually pulling 600w+, then personally, I feel this new "standard" is a little silly, and telling somebody to hold off on buying a PSU in anticipation of these is even worse.

Edited March 28, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[ENTERPRISE]

The new standard certainly doesn't need to exist. If there is an argument for efficiency then I understand and agree with that for environmental reasons. However other than that the new standard doesn't seem to add real tangible benefits to the end user that I can see. My EVGA 1600Watt will be fine for me. If we get hardware coming out that needs the new standard connector style...im good with an adapter.

[Sir Beregond]

This is why I decided to just pull my old AX850 out of retirement. It's 10 years old, but in good condition upon inspection. Right now seems like a bad time to buy new PSUs.

[EHW Ai]

^You'll likely be okay for the time being; but there may come a time down the road when the use of hardware that requires what many currently think of as an excessively large amount of power will also require the use of an ATX 3.0 spec'd psu. 

 

I've been reading through a few threads here and there (including a very long one at chiphell) about Intel's newly updated/released psu design guide and what's being stated pretty much parrots that. Section 3 of the recently updated design guide is pretty much all new stuff that Intel may have hashed out with NVIDIA (or not, and NVIDIA is simply complying with Intel's new requirement); hence, those new 12 pin connectors everyone's been talking about. 

 

You can download a locked pdf copy of the updated design guide from here (you won't be able to copy and paste from it):

 

ATX12VO (12V Only) Desktop Power Supply Design Guide
Revision 2, March 2022

 

Intel also provides an html version of the design guide that's aligned to ATX 2.0; it covers much of what's included in Section 3 of the newly updated version noted above, starting in the subsection labeled PCI Express* Add-in Card Considerations in the sidebar toc.

 

The ATX 3.0 spec itself may or may not still be in preliminary status--I wouldn't know; it is currently unavailable to peons like myself 

 

 

[J7SC_Orion]

I think it is going to be a while yet before ATX 3.0 will be fully released, much less become the exclusive standard. In the meantime, welcome to "dongle-world..."

  

 

...what troubles me a bit though is the timing as we seem to be moving into periods with potentially more supply-chain disruptions the world over (including Asia where most PSUs come from).

[Darkpriest667]

What happened to the green movement? I mean hell they won't let Dell sell Alienwares in California unless they meet a spec that is pretty ruthless (BTW the default alienware profile with a 3090 and 12900k only pulls 435W from the wall)

[ENTERPRISE]

3 hours ago, Darkpriest667 said:

What happened to the green movement? I mean hell they won't let Dell sell Alienwares in California unless they meet a spec that is pretty ruthless (BTW the default alienware profile with a 3090 and 12900k only pulls 435W from the wall)

I agree, this moves against the green movement. I love performance as an enthusiast BUT I am more impressed by innovation where generationally you can get more for less. We should be working towards best performance with reduced power requirements generationally. 

[Pawelr98]

The question would be, is the digital transmission actually required for running the hardware.

If not, why bother really ?

Worst case scenario I can make my own adapter for any connector released in the future.

[ArchStanton]

1 minute ago, Pawelr98 said:

Worst case scenario I can make my own adapter for any connector released in the future.

Aye, I'm of a similar mind.  As long as the "pin out" is available it should be no problem.

[Sir Beregond]

On 03/04/2022 at 02:36, ENTERPRISE said:

I agree, this moves against the green movement. I love performance as an enthusiast BUT I am more impressed by innovation where generationally you can get more for less. We should be working towards best performance with reduced power requirements generationally. 

100% agree and why I am generally disgusted by the current trends. Say what you want about the Maxwell era where 80-class chips for a 3rd generation were now the x04, but they definitely got more out of it for less power.

[PCSarge]

4 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

100% agree and why I am generally disgusted by the current trends. Say what you want about the Maxwell era where 80-class chips for a 3rd generation were now the x04, but they definitely got more out of it for less power.

we need a 600W gpu connector like we need a hole in our heads, 3 8 pins looks better when cable managed anyways.

 

i think intel and nvidia are colluding to make money, because just like that other proprietary connector of nvidia's this is some really dumb stuff and didnt take off into use. so they're using intel to force it upon us instead.