Rumors have already pointed to the forthcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 drawing a lot of power, but the latest speculation is that the new GPU could have not one, but two 16-pin power sockets. When 16-pin cables were first introduced with the 12VHPWR standard, there were multiple reports of the cables catching fire on RTX 4090 graphics cards, leading to 12VHPWR being usurped by the more secure 12V-2×6 power standard, which also has 16 pins.

With AMD widely rumored to be focusing on the mid-range market with its forthcoming RDNA 4 GPU, it looks as though Nvidia will have the best graphics card title all sewn up when it eventually launches its flagship Blackwell gaming GPU. This new Nvidia GPU is rumored to be very power-hungry, though, with leaks pointing to the RTX 5090 power draw being over 550W, and as high as 600W.

That latter figure is the same maximum wattage of a 12VHPWR power cable, although the graphics card will also get a modest amount of power from the PCIe slot too. Once board partners start overclocking their RTX 5090 graphics cards, though, that power output will get even higher, and that’s where the extra headroom of a pair of 12VHPWR cables could come in handy.

Tech site Tweak Town has also just added some further speculation about this after visiting an MSI power supply factory in Shenzen, China. While on the tour they spotted a new MSI PCIe 5.0 modular power supply that had two 12V-2×6 power connectors on it, and when asked why, MSI reportedly responded that they were needed to “support the next generation of graphics cards.”

MSI isn’t the first company to produce a PSU with two 16-pin connectors. Thermaltake has already released the Toughpower GF3 1,650W Gold (pictured below), for example, which also has a pair of 12VHPWR sockets on the PSU, which the company similarly says “is built for the next-gen PCIe 5.0 graphics cards.”

You might need a new PSU for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 modular PSU with two 16-pin power sockets

Bear in mind that this is all speculation based on rumor right now, and there’s still every chance that the next flagship Nvidia GPU won’t require a pair of 16-pin power connectors after all. However, if some RTX 5090 cards did require two 16-pin power cables, you would need to check the spec of your PSU to make sure it’s up to it.

Most new PC gaming PSUs have a 16-pin power connector of some description now, but two is a rarity. There are ways around this, though. You can use an adapter to convert 8-pin PCIe power sockets to 16-pin ones, for example, but you would also need to be sure your PSU has a beefy 12V rail.

Two 16-pin power connectors could draw a lot of 12V power too, and the 12V rail will also be heavily used by your CPU. If you’re planning to put an overclocked RTX 5090 in a Core i9 14900K system, you may well end up needing a serious power supply in your rig.

For more information about what we expect to see in Nvidia’s next flagship gaming GPU, check out our RTX 5090 guide, where we share everything we know so far about the new Blackwell chip.