Here is the first x-ray drawing of NVIDIA's GeForce Kepler 104 (GK104) reference board, outlining the VRM area. The GPU and memory areas are blanked out for some very obvious reasons. Nevertheless, there's plenty of fascinating stuff going on in these pictures. To begin with, the picture confirms that the board will have 5 NVVDD phases, and up to three miscellaneous power domains. The PCB has provisions for two 6-pin and one 8-pin connector.The funny part here is a strange new plug that has two 6-pin (or 8-pin+6-pin) stacked, while one of the two 6-pin connector leads are blanked. Some of our sources also report having seen a similar connector with 8-pin and 6-pin on samples of this card (refer to the last picture below). It's not just this, that makes the card incapable of single-slot operation, the DVI connectors over at the display IO also are stacked like on previous-generation AMD Radeon cards. Other connectors on the card are HDMI and DisplayPort. There are two SLI bridge connectors, giving it 3-way and 4-way SLI support.

45 Comments on NVIDIA GK104 PCB Drawings, Unusual Power Connector Designs Surface

1 to 25 of 45 Go to Page 12 PreviousNext

#1 Crap Daddy

btarunr The funny part here is a strange new plug that has two 6-pin (or 8-pin 6-pin) stacked The monster shows its ugly head... The monster shows its ugly head... Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:05 Reply

#2 badtaylorx

3-way sli support on a "4" series gpu....this is great.....



could you imagine what could have been with a tri-gtx 460/ 560 ti setup??? Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:07 Reply

#3 erixx

Aha! Now it makes all more sense, thanks Btarunr Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:18 Reply

#4 DarkOCean

So... with this new power conector you could put 4x8 pins on one card. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:24 Reply

#5 Tensa Zangetsu

Stacked 8pin+6pin :shadedshu So how are we supposed to stack these into 4-way SLI on water again? Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:26 Reply

#6 Finners

So it can do 8+6 pin side by side or 8+6 pin stacked, or are they talking about the top end cards needing 8+6+6 pin connectors? Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:41 Reply

#7 Aquinus

Resident Wat-man I like how there is room on the PCB to add more power connectors. I have a feeling Kepler is going to be another power thirsty space heater for lack of a better phrase. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:42 Reply

#8 kenkickr

Title makes me think of Simon :laugh: Can't wait to see a working card cause a "drawing" does nothing for me. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:45 Reply

#9 punani

Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 8:56 Reply

#10 chaotic_uk

Aquinus I have a feeling Kepler is going to be another power thirsty space heater for lack of a better phrase. good i will save on the heating bills then :laugh: good i will save on the heating bills then :laugh: Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:08 Reply

#11 timmyisme22

1.21 gigawatts indeed, punani.





I just hope that if it does use a large amount of power, it at least backs it up with proper performance. It's all we can ever ask for... and possibly a new surge protector, some new outlets, maybe even a larger breaker. All-in-all, still waiting to see what comes of it. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:25 Reply

#12 Duckula

:toast: Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:31 Reply

#13 NorthEndJon

So AMD went for a minor overall increase in speed but with great efficency, and it looks like NVIDIA is going balls out performance if the PCB needs that much juice. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:32 Reply

#14 Aquinus

Resident Wat-man Duckula :toast: My god, that's a lot of VRMs and FETs...



Edit: Power efficiency typically results in better scalability. My god, that's a lot of VRMs and FETs...Edit: Power efficiency typically results in better scalability. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:36 Reply

#15 Iceni

just throwing an idea out here, But those power connectors could be so you can link cards in the same circuit. So you can link cards 1 and 2 on a single rail, and cards 3 and 4 on your second sli rail.



The odd connection type could be Nvidias way of clearing up cables that they thought were unsightly.



The reason i say this is because of the green pcb layout. The 6/8 pin block stacks into the same connections on the pcb. If Nvidia were drawing that much power on these cards surely the connections would be independent, so as not to cross PSU rails. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:44 Reply

#16 hhumas

something strange is going on Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 9:48 Reply

#17 krisna159

OMG... it will need nuclear reactor to power it in 4 way SLI :( Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 10:10 Reply

#18 newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder Yeah, if I'm seeing this correctly the PCB is setup for 6+6+8, though they are only using 6+6 at the moment(from the other thread). This leaves a lot of room for more powerful GPUs on this same PCB. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 10:34 Reply

#19 Bjorn_Of_Iceland

Another power hungry and inneficient card from nVidia. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 11:20 Reply

#20 HalfAHertz

Maybe they have decided to switch to a modular pcb design that can accommodate different setups mish-masing GPUsVRMs/RAMs etc...You know faster execution of new products and reduced Q&A/R&D at the cost of a few extra pennies per board. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 11:40 Reply

#21 HossHuge

Could this be the design for a possible dual GPU card that would need more power? Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 12:48 Reply

#22 sanadanosa

There is room for another 6 pin power connector Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 12:54 Reply

#23 m1dg3t

Bjorn_Of_Iceland Another power hungry and inneficient card from nVidia. That is the main reason i have never went Nvidia in any of my build's. No one can say for certain just how efficient or inefficient this series will be but judging from Nvidia's history this will be more of the same :shadedshu I dunno, the more i see this board the less i like it :oThat is the main reason i have never went Nvidia in any of my build's. No one can say for certain just how efficient or inefficient this series will be but judging from Nvidia's history this will be more of the same :shadedshu Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 13:05 Reply

#24 radrok

Who cares about efficiency on high end cards? Buy midrange if you want good perf/watt.

High end should bring loads of performance and IF possible efficiency, not necessarily anyway. Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 13:06 Reply

#25 m1dg3t

radrok Who cares about efficiency on high end cards? Buy midrange if you want good perf/watt.

High end should bring loads of performance and IF possible efficiency, not necessarily anyway. I always factor efficiency into everything, really how good is something if it is inefficient?



To me inefficiency = poor design I always factor efficiency into everything, really how good is something if it is inefficient?To me inefficiency = poor design Posted on Mar 2nd 2012, 13:10 Reply