The appearance of the new PCI Express power port has caused a revolution within the world of manufacturers of power supplies and those of PC cases. This without forgetting those in charge of creating refrigeration systems. And it is that adding a port that can add an additional 600 W of power to the GPU has its crumb, but both the SeaSonic Prime TX-1600 as the TX-1300 of the same brand go beyond that, since they bring with them a double surprise.
The ATX 3.0 specification standard includes PCI Express 5.0 and its new 12+4 pin power connector or also known as 12VHPWR. Which can provide up to 600 W of power, but this does not mean that a connector of this type in a power supply of that amount of watts. We also have to take into account that they can give 150 W, 300 W and 450 W. What happens is that the two lowest values are provided by one and two 8-pin connectors. However, many power supplies and especially those of 1000 W have too little power for what is coming to us. And it is that in some sources if we do calculations we will realize that the 12VHPWR connector does not have maximum power.
SeaSonic Prime TX-1600 and TX-1300, sources with dual PCI Gen 5 connector
It is the case of the new SeaSonic TX-1600 and TX-1300 power supplies, we find a double 12+4 pin connector, but powers of 1600 W and 1300 W respectively and they have the most advanced classic systems in the face of voltage surges and short circuits. Apart from both meet 80 Plus Titanium efficiency; However still level and efficiency unknown, based on Cybenetics testing.
As a curiosity, the Prime TX-1600 provides 1600 W with voltages of 114 and 230 volts, in other conditions the power it provides is 1300 W. Actually, both power supplies are identical in aesthetics, connectors and dimensions. As you may have guessed, 1300 W of power is already eaten by the double 12+4 pin connectorwhich does not mean that the power delivered through the two connectors is not all the power, since it would barely leave 100 W or less for the rest of the components.
And here we enter one of the biggest unknowns, the manufacturers of the different components of the PC have to work side by side with the specifications of the ATX 3.0 standard and make sure that the graphics cards that we will see in the future receive enough power, at like the rest of the components. Rumors speak of NVIDIA and AMD models, in the future high-end graphics cards, which might not go above 450W and very advanced models with double connector. In any case, it’s still too early to tell, but we don’t think that the power supply manufacturers are not aware of the needs of the new hardware. And even more so when they offer such long guarantees of operation, as in this case, which is from 12 years.
