You may have noticed that modern power supplies are advertising themselves as ATX 3.0 ready. What does it mean? Why is it important? What's the difference between 2.0 and 3.0? Let's talk about it.
What does this mean?
When talking about the ATX standard what you are the power standards by which most modern power supplies adhere to. Intel sets the standards in terms of what to expect with hardware at the time the power supplies are being produced. ATX 2.0 is quite old being introduced around 2003, and has been receiving updates until 2022. This update to ATX 3.0 serves as a point in which PSUs will keep up with modern day innovations to technology.
Why is this important?
With the newer GPU's that have been released as of 2022 the power needs have also changed. The graphics cards needed better capacity for power spikes under heavy loads. They also needed a design that could supply a higher cap of power to the GPU all at once.
A lot of the importance has to do with reliability. As mentioned before when the power spikes under heavy load, the ATX 3.0 standard has a higher capacity to carry the load for small amounts of time until the GPU demands less power. This is usually for only milliseconds at a time but without this new standard, it is usually enough to crash computers without it.
What's the difference between 2.0 and 3.0
There are a few key differences between 2.0 and 3.0 to are most important. The first and most important is that the ATX 3.0 standard can support up to 600w of power to the GPU. This can be done through either the PCIe lines or through the new and improved 12VHPWR line.
The 12VHPWR line is the second most important upgrade. It consolidates the number of cables and heads needed for a GPU to just one 16-pin connection. This single line is cleaner, more efficient, and more reliable than PCIe cables.
Those two key features are enough to make a big deal and totally redesign the industry of power supplies. If you are using an older GPU from before 2022, upgrading is not 100% necessary but can't hurt either. If you are using a post-2022 graphics card like the RTX 3000 or 4000 series graphics card, it is highly recommended you upgrade the PSU to a 3.0-compliant unit.