PSU cables..

[Wekslie]

Hello guys. I bought an MSI 2080 Ti today. I noticed that it accepts 3 power cables. 2 8 pins, and 1 6 pins. My current PSU(Seasonic G550w) does not have an extra 6 pins cable, so I figured I needed a new PSU. After looking around for a while, I found that most PSU's don't have this many PCIe cables. Am I missing something?

[Sakkura]

Many PSUs have two connectors on each cable, both of which can be used when necessary.

[Wekslie]

5 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Many PSUs have two connectors on each cable, both of which can be used when necessary.

Thanks for your fast reply. Can you explain a bit further? 

[Sakkura]

3 minutes ago, Wekslie said:

Thanks for your fast reply. Can you explain a bit further? 

Maybe an image helps:

Spoiler

So this cable plugs into the power supply on the left end. On the right end, there are two PCIe connectors that can both plug into a graphics card.

 

The power supply that picture is from has two of those cables, so it has a total of four PCIe connectors.

 

(pic grabbed from this review, just a random example)

[Wekslie]

6 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Maybe an image helps:

  Hide contents

So this cable plugs into the power supply on the left end. On the right end, there are two PCIe connectors that can both plug into a graphics card.

 

The power supply that picture is from has two of those cables, so it has a total of four PCIe connectors.

 

(pic grabbed from this review, just a random example

This makes perfect sense, thank you. So how do I know if the PSU I'm ordering has 2 of these included?

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

So this cable plugs into the power supply on the left end. On the right end, there are two PCIe connectors that can both plug into a graphics card.

The Seasonic G550 doesn't have that. It has 2 cables which have a single 6+2 connector on the end. The PSU only has 2 PCIe connectors.

 

You can view the Seasonic G550's included cables here: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/seasonic-g550-v2/3.html

 

20 minutes ago, Wekslie said:

so I figured I needed a new PSU. After looking around for a while, I found that most PSU's don't have this many PCIe cables. Am I missing something?

What PSUs were you looking at?
A lot of the time you only get more than 2 PCIe connectors on the higher wattage models meant for dual GPU systems. 750W+ usually has 4 PCIe connectors. Some power supplies may use the pigtail connectors where it has 2 connectors on the end of one cable like what @Sakkura discussed, so check the product specifications if it lists 4x 6+2 PCIe connectors.

 

The graphics card should work without the extra 6pin plugged in as far as I'm aware.

[Sakkura]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

The Seasonic G550 doesn't have that. It has 2 cables which have a single 6+2 connector on the end. The PSU only has 2 PCIe connectors.

 

You can view the Seasonic G550's included cables here: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/seasonic-g550-v2/3.html

I misread the Jonnyguru review. It's not the point anyway, just using the image to illustrate the concept.

[Spotty]

Just now, Sakkura said:

I misread the Jonnyguru review. It's not the point anyway, just using the image to illustrate the concept.

The JonnyGuru review linked was for the Focus Plus Gold, not the G550. Different PSUs. The Focus Plus Gold does have pigtail PCIe connectors, but the 550W model only has one cable (2 connectors) so you'd still be stuck with only 2x6+2 connectors.

[Wekslie]

12 minutes ago, Spotty said:

The graphics card should work without the extra 6pin plugged in as far as I'm aware.

I have read things about this as well. So I tried to run the card with only 2 8 pins connected. The cards RGB lit up, but the fans didn't move, and I got no signal to my monitor.

[Kilrah]

Yeah cards usually check that they're all present.

[Wekslie]

24 minutes ago, Spotty said:

What PSUs were you looking at?

So this one for instance:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/corsair-rm650i/2.html

 

This one has 4 connectors total if I'm not mistaken?

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, Wekslie said:

So this one for instance:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/corsair-rm650i/2.html

 

This one has 4 connectors total if I'm not mistaken?

Correct. It has 2 cables and each cable has 2 connectors which gives a total of 4 connectors.

[Wekslie]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Correct. It has 2 cables and each cable has 2 connectors which gives a total of 4 connectors.

Thank you! I feel a little less dumb now

 

Thanks everyone for helping me!

[Sakkura]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

The JonnyGuru review linked was for the Focus Plus Gold, not the G550. Different PSUs. The Focus Plus Gold does have pigtail PCIe connectors, but the 550W model only has one cable (2 connectors) so you'd still be stuck with only 2x6+2 connectors.

I never said it was about the G550. I specifically said it was an example.

[Wekslie]

Hey guys, sorry for some more questions about this topic. If the cable is not in the box for this PSU, does that always mean that the PSU isn't supporting it? For instance, if I just buy a compatible PCI 6/8 cable, would that work?

 

I'm still buying the new PSU I think, but just curious!