Corsair just spilled the beans on next-gen GPU requirements

Friday at 10:23 PM

Sometimes, news about next-gen GPUs comes from unlikely sources — today is one of those days. Corsair just spoke about its power supply units (PSUs) and cooling solutions in relation to the future of some of the upcoming best graphics cards. It turns out that Nvidia’s RTX 50-series may not be that much more power-hungry than the current-gen cards, but there’s more than just Nvidia to consider here.

Although unexpected, Corsair’s statement sounds like good news. The company doesn’t talk about any new solutions. In fact, Corsair seems to confirm that the power supply units (PSUs) we use today will still work fine for next-gen cards — provided the wattage is sufficient.

“The latest graphics cards now require a 12V-2×6 GPU power connector, a standard we expect will continue with next-gen GPUs,” said Corsair.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming

On the other hand, the company admits that there could be a rise in power requirements: “Next-generation high-end graphics cards could demand even more power than current models, which can draw up to 450 watts. Factoring in high-end CPUs and other power-hungry components, this points to an increased need for higher wattage PSUs.”

This means that we could see a more power-hungry RTX 5090, but still, the connector can only handle up to 600 watts — so that’s the limit.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

Corsair

There’s been a lot of talk about the power requirements for next-gen GPUs, although that may be too broad a statement. In reality, the speculation is mostly centered around Nvidia, namely its flagship RTX 5090. AMD and Intel, while also set to launch RDNA 4 and Battlemage, are unlikely to release enthusiast-level cards that need serious cooling and consume lots of power. Nvidia, however, is almost certainly pushing for the high end.

We’ve seen claims that the RTX 5090 will require 600 watts of power — that’s 150W more than its predecessor. We’ve also seen reputable leakers say that the entire lineup will see an increase in power consumption. However, some of the claims were a bit too wild to be real, such as the speculation that the RTX 5090 might use not one, but two 12V-2×6 power connectors.

Corsair doesn’t seem to imply that any of these outlandish claims are true, which is good news. If Nvidia sticks to the 12V-2×6 power connector, then we’re guaranteed to have the RTX 5090 with a power requirement of under 600 watts. Although Corsair doesn’t mention Nvidia by name, it’s unlikely that either AMD or Intel will have cards that need nearly as much power. However, they might still use the same power connector — we’ll have to wait and see.