Forget your 8-pin, ROG readies new 12-pin PCIe 5.0 connector for next-gen GPUs

Last night alongside its new range of Z690 motherboards, ASUS also announced new ROG Thor II Platinum and Titanium power supplies. Interestingly, the announcement confirms a rumour we've covered previously. It would appear upcoming GPUs will indeed feature a 12-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector, and these new ASUS power supplies will be ready for them.

During its ‘Break All Limits' event introducing its Z690 motherboard lineup, Asus also showed four new modular PSUs: the ROG Thor 850W Platinum II, the ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II, the ROG Thor 1200W Platinum II and the ROG Thor 1600W Titanium. All three new PSUs have the same external design, featuring a silver and dark grey theme, an OLED screen that displays power consumption in real-time, and RGB LEDs. Inside each unit, there's a 135mm fan to drive the heat away, but the one used on the 850W model differs from the other three.

According to Asus, the ROG Thor 1600W Titanium uses a digital control design and advanced gallium nitride solid-state components, allowing it to achieve a 90% efficiency at 10% load and a 93.54% efficiency at 100% load. As for cooling, Asus employed large ROG heatsinks on top of the ICs and other components inside the unit, increasing the PSU's lifespan.

The new ROG Thor 1000W, 1200W, and 1600W PSUs achieved the Lambda A++ certification from Cybenetics, so you can be sure that operating noise won't be a problem with these PSUs. During the test, the certification institution registered less than 15 dBA of noise. This is in part due to how the fans behave, shutting off entirely at low loads. Moreover, the new ROG Thor PSUs will be ready for next-gen PSUs featuring 12-pin PCIe 5.0 power connectors, with each unit coming with one cable.

The new Asus ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II PSU is expected to release in mid-November, followed by the ROG Thor 1200W Platinum II and the ROG Thor 1600W Titanium later this year. As for the 850W model, it should arrive in Q1 2022.

KitGuru says: Considering that some of these PSUs are releasing this year, the next-gen GPUs using 12-pin PCIe 5.0 power connectors should follow soon. It looks like the rumoured Q1 2022 release date for the new Nvidia GPUs might be true.

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