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Can't figure out what I need to get two graphics card powered up.

boardy89
Go to solution Solved by Deuxez,
23 minutes ago, boardy89 said:

I've had got a GeForce 970 GPU which I've had for some time, but needed a second card so found the cheapest ebay card which was a GeForce 570, I've realised though my PC doesn't have enough cables to power it and I can't figure out what adapter (if one exists) I would need to power them. 

 

The 970 is powered by 1 single 8 pin which is plugged in via 6 pin PCI-E from the PSU into an adapter to convert it to 8 pin into the GPU. 

 

The 570 however, requires 6 pin PCI-E and 8 Pin power but I only have 2x 6 pin PCI-E. 

 

Can anyone recommend the best way I can power these cards, not 100% sure what the adapters might be called and when Googling all I find is molex power to 8 pin but I don't have any molex power, only SATA power cables. 

Bro, if a PSU doesnt have enough PCIe cables, then you shouldnt try and add more with adapters and stuff like that. It most likely wont be able to power them. Just like @Vishera said above.

 

Also, if a card got 1x6 and 1x8 pin power input, it must be for a reason. You cant just plug in the 1x6 and think the card will still be able to get enough power from just that one. Plus that 6 - 8 pin adapter wont really work unless it got both 6 pin power cables attached. A 6 pin alone only have 6 pins, not 8, where are the last 2 pins suppose to get their power from? (the last 2 pins MAY in some cases just be extra ground contacts, but you should still not use the adapter unless you got both power sources plugged in).

 

Molex to PCIe power cables are NOT safe in any way either. Dont use them unless you want to fry your system.

 

And for SLI to work, you need a SLI supported motherboard, a SLI bridge but most importantly 2x of the same GPUs.

 

If you are NOT after SLI, and just want 2 GPUs in the same system for separate things, you still need a better PSU to power them both.

I've had got a GeForce 970 GPU which I've had for some time, but needed a second card so found the cheapest ebay card which was a GeForce 570, I've realised though my PC doesn't have enough cables to power it and I can't figure out what adapter (if one exists) I would need to power them. 

 

The 970 is powered by 1 single 8 pin which is plugged in via 6 pin PCI-E from the PSU into an adapter to convert it to 8 pin into the GPU. 

 

The 570 however, requires 6 pin PCI-E and 8 Pin power but I only have 2x 6 pin PCI-E. 

 

Can anyone recommend the best way I can power these cards, not 100% sure what the adapters might be called and when Googling all I find is molex power to 8 pin but I don't have any molex power, only SATA power cables. 

 

I've attached some pics showing the cards in case it helps. 

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. 

 

Chris

IMG_0133.jpg

IMG_0134.jpg

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6 minutes ago, boardy89 said:

I can't figure out what adapter (if one exists) I would need to power them. 

Adapters are a fire hazard,

If your PSU doesn't have more cables - It probably can't handle more PCI-E cables anyway.

6 minutes ago, boardy89 said:

Can anyone recommend the best way I can power these cards

It's either a new power supply or just don't use a second card at all.

6 minutes ago, boardy89 said:

The 970 is powered by 1 single 8 pin which is plugged in via 6 pin PCI-E from the PSU into an adapter to convert it to 8 pin into the GPU. 

 

The 570 however, requires 6 pin PCI-E and 8 Pin power but I only have 2x 6 pin PCI-E. 

In order for SLI to work you need two matching cards,but your cards are different.

It won't work anyway.

 

Also you need a SLI bridge,and a SLI compatible motherboard.

A PC Enthusiast since 2011
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X@4.65GHz | GIGABYTE GTX 1660 GAMING OC @ Core 2085MHz Memory 5000MHz
Cinebench R23: 15669cb | Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme: 3566
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23 minutes ago, boardy89 said:

I've had got a GeForce 970 GPU which I've had for some time, but needed a second card so found the cheapest ebay card which was a GeForce 570, I've realised though my PC doesn't have enough cables to power it and I can't figure out what adapter (if one exists) I would need to power them. 

 

The 970 is powered by 1 single 8 pin which is plugged in via 6 pin PCI-E from the PSU into an adapter to convert it to 8 pin into the GPU. 

 

The 570 however, requires 6 pin PCI-E and 8 Pin power but I only have 2x 6 pin PCI-E. 

 

Can anyone recommend the best way I can power these cards, not 100% sure what the adapters might be called and when Googling all I find is molex power to 8 pin but I don't have any molex power, only SATA power cables. 

Bro, if a PSU doesnt have enough PCIe cables, then you shouldnt try and add more with adapters and stuff like that. It most likely wont be able to power them. Just like @Vishera said above.

 

Also, if a card got 1x6 and 1x8 pin power input, it must be for a reason. You cant just plug in the 1x6 and think the card will still be able to get enough power from just that one. Plus that 6 - 8 pin adapter wont really work unless it got both 6 pin power cables attached. A 6 pin alone only have 6 pins, not 8, where are the last 2 pins suppose to get their power from? (the last 2 pins MAY in some cases just be extra ground contacts, but you should still not use the adapter unless you got both power sources plugged in).

 

Molex to PCIe power cables are NOT safe in any way either. Dont use them unless you want to fry your system.

 

And for SLI to work, you need a SLI supported motherboard, a SLI bridge but most importantly 2x of the same GPUs.

 

If you are NOT after SLI, and just want 2 GPUs in the same system for separate things, you still need a better PSU to power them both.

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13 hours ago, Vishera said:

Adapters are a fire hazard,

If your PSU doesn't have more cables - It probably can't handle more PCI-E cables anyway.

It's either a new power supply or just don't use a second card at all.

In order for SLI to work you need two matching cards,but your cards are different.

It won't work anyway.

 

Also you need a SLI bridge,and a SLI compatible motherboard.

 

Thanks I did wonder whether a new PSU would be the best option, I was thinking the PSU is quite beefy anyway and these are old cards so wouldn't be drawing a huge amount of power compared to newer ones (at least that's what I assumed, hardware is not my expertise lol). I did know I needed to have both cables plugged in to the top card, not just the 6 pin, I only showed it like that in the photo to make it clear on the set up 🙂

 

I'm using the PC as an UnRAID server so using the 570 for the the server itself terminal and the 970 being passed through to a VM so no SLI. 

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