The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards will make use of the new PCIe Gen 5 power connection (12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR). Power supplies that come with these connections are very limited right now, so if you are going to be an early adopter of one of the new RTX 40 series cards you’ll need an adapter. These adapters will have as many as four 8-pin connectors being led into a single Gen 5 cable.
Apparently these adapters do not have a long life cycle. According to a listing on the Zotac website their PCIe Gen 5 adapter that takes four 8-pin connections to a single 16-pin connection has a service life of only 30 connect / disconnects. While this should not be a big deal for most games as they install the card once and forget about it for years, reviewers and overclockers who use open-air test benches and move hardware around could have a big issue with this. It seems for these use cases someone would need at least a few of these adapters laying around if not a power supply with a native 12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR connection.
I guess this is a limitation of the adapter assessed by NVIDIA for the maximum number of times the adapter can handle connection cycles before the contacts begin to wear out, and it is no longer safe to use. If you look at the picture of the Zotac adapter it has an NVIDIA logo on it, which means NVIDIA is directly supplying the adapter to AIC partners.
Via WCCFTech
