Help with new 4090 FE and power requirements

[beerglass007]

Hi all

So I have a 3080 MSI Gaming trio card which used 3 x 8pin plugs and ran off a SeaSonic 750 Watt PSU. During gaming it pulled a total of 450 - 500 watts

I now have a 4090 FE and connected only 3 out of the 4 8pin connections to the GPU. Played a few games and checked power usage and it was 450 watts - Happy days

I did purchase a new PSU which is 850 watts with the new ATX 3.0 / PCIE5.0 and comes with the new power connector for the 4 Series cards.

Question is, do I need it ? Having just 3 connectors have I limited the power and performance of the 4090 ?

Thanks in advance

 

[Aretak]

Yes, only connecting three of the 8-pins will simply limit the card to 450W and not let you increase the power target. It's only when you plug in the fourth that it can go above that. This is by design, as confirmed by one of Nvidia's engineers to Gamers Nexus.