MSI is making some interesting upgrades to its upcoming X870 and X870E motherboards. Cowcotland reports that the motherboard manufacturer showed off new X870 and X870E motherboards at Gamescom 2024, featuring an 8-pin PCIe power connector installed at the bottom of the PCB.
The additional power connector is reportedly designed to power next-generation graphics cards. Assuming MSI is taking full advantage of the capabilities of a single 8-pin PCIe connector, these new X870/X870E motherboards will have up to 75W of additional power routed to the primary, secondary, or both PCIe slots thanks to that additional 8-pin power plug. A single PCIe x16 slot can already give up to 75W of power to the slot so that the extra 8-pin will give these new MSI boards up to 225W of power generation entirely from the x16 slot (or slots) alone.
The 8-pin PCIe power connector is located strategically at the bottom of MSI's new motherboards. It is an optimal place, as it positions it very close to the PCIe slots and makes it easy for builders to manage the 8-pin power cable needed to power the connector.
MSI unofficially indicated to Cowcotland that these new 8-pin connectors on their X870/X870E motherboards are aimed squarely at next-generation graphics cards, such as the GeForce RTX 50 series. Alternatively, the additional 8-pin PCIe power connector could be used for multi-GPU setups typical of AI systems.
On the one hand, MSI's changes suggest that next-generation graphics cards will consume more power than outgoing GPUs like the RTX 4090 already do. Having extra power wired to the PCIe slot will enable GPUs to pull more than 600W—660W of power without opting for a secondary 12v2x6 power connector. There is little reason to add extra power to the PCIe slot if the GPU doesn't exceed the 12v2x6 connector's power specification.
Given that Asus has implemented the supplementary 8-pin PCIe connector on its own competing X870 and X870E motherboards, motherboard vendors likely already know the power necessities of next-generation graphics cards.
