Inno3D's GeForce RTX 4070 to Come with 8-Pin Power Connector
GeForce RTX 4070 does not need 12VHPWR.
Inno3D will equip its upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card with a classic eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector and not a modern 12VHPWR power connector found on more advanced products from Nvidia's Ada Lovelace stable, according to a picture of alleged Inno3D's package published at Chiphell (via @9550pro).
Assuming that the picture of the package is legit, it confirms that Nvidia's AD104-based GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card has a moderate power requirement and will be fine with 150W of power delivered by an eight-pin PCIe power cable and up to 75W from the slot. Moderate power consumption is a reason why Inno3D's GeForce RTX 4070 comes with a rather simplistic dual-slot cooling system with only two fans.
Indeed, Nvidia is not going to mandate the usage of the novel PCIe Gen5 12+4-pin auxiliary power connector (12VHPWR) on upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards, our former colleague Igor Wallossek revealed last night. While some of Nvidia's partners could still equip their board with a 12VHPWR power plug, others might go with two eight-pin power connectors to deliver more power to the boards and increase their overclocking potential. But at least there will be models with a classic eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector that is compatible with existing power supplies.
Given expected performance, -moderate power consumption, and compatibility, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4070 will likely join the ranks of the best graphics cards.
Based on what we know about Nvidia's upcoming GeForce RTX 4070, it is set to use an AD104 graphics processing unit with 5888 CUDA cores activated (out of 7680 CUDA cores enabled on GeForce RTX 4070 Ti) that will be paired with 12GB of 21 GT/s memory using a 192-bit interface.
An AD104 GPU in such configuration will be significantly slower than a full-fat AD104 chip, but this configuration will ensure that the vast majority of processors that Nvidia has could be qualified for a GeForce RTX 4070. Furthermore, it is likely that the chip will be a good overclocker.
Nvidia and its partners are expected to start sales of GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards on April 13, 2023. The prices of these boards remain a mystery for now.
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Row 0 - Cell 0 | GPU | FP32 CUDA Cores | Memory Configuration | TBP | MSRP |
GeForce RTX 4090 Ti | AD102 | 18176 (?) | 24GB 384-bit 24 GT/s GDDR6X (?) | 600W (?) | ? |
GeForce RTX 4090 | AD102 | 16384 | 24GB 384-bit 21 GT/s GDDR6X | 450W | $1,599 |
GeForce RTX 4080 | AD103 | 9728 | 16GB 256-bit 22.4 GT/s GDDR6X | 320W | $1,199 |
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | AD104 | 7680 | 12GB 192-bit 21 GT/s GDDR6X | 285W | $799 |
GeForce RTX 4070 * | AD104 | 5888 (?) | 12GB 192-bit 21 GT/s GDDR6X | 250W (?) | ? |
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti * | AD106 | 4352 (?) | 8GB 128-bit 18 GT/s GDDR6 | 160W (?) | <$500? |
GeForce RTX 3070 | GA104 | 5888 | 8GB 256-bit 14 GT/s GDDR6 | 220W | $499 |
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.