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Help with supplying power to my gpu

xAuth1

So with the latest drop in GPU prices I decided to treat myself to an RTX 3070. I'm gonna get it tomorrow and I'm really excited about finally changing my ol' trustworthy rx 570 8gb. 

 

Anyway, to the actual problem.
So I decided to clean my PC up, get everything in order so tomorrow I can just pop it in and start playing with it, when I realized that my PSU (core stream ocz-cxs500w) has only two 6-pin connectors and one 2-pin connector. The 3070 needs two 8-pin ones. I checked the power table on the PSU and it (theoretically) will be able to power the new card with spare, but I'm still two pins short. Anyone maybe has some ideas how to save it without getting a new PSU. I wouldn't mind getting a new one, but if I could keep the one I have it'd be awesome.
Thanks in advance!

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Dunno if i would even consider chancing a thing like that i would honestly just buy another PSU.

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2 minutes ago, xAuth1 said:

Anyone maybe has some ideas how to save it without getting a new PSU

Nope. Get a power supply that actually has the connectors you need. If the unit is old enough to have zero 8 pin pci-e connectors then retire it.

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13 minutes ago, SkyeAwoo said:

Dunno if i would even consider chancing a thing like that i would honestly just buy another PSU.

 

13 minutes ago, emosun said:

Nope. Get a power supply that actually has the connectors you need. If the unit is old enough to have zero 8 pin pci-e connectors then retire it.

But I'm looking and can easily find 2 molex to 8-pin connectors, that would work easily right? I know getting a new one is the easiest and the best solution, but I don't mind tinkering a bit and mostly I'm simply curious if something like that would possible.

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It'd be possible but worth chancing your precious pc? No not in the slightest just buy a new power supply that fits the bill so you don't end up getting smoked somehow .. things happen.

Ryzen 9 7950X 5.9 GHz 16-Core, Full Liquid CoolingROG Crosshair X670E EXTREMEG.Skill Trident Z5 6000 MHz 64 GB, EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 12 GBSeasonic PRIME Platinum 1000WKingston HyperX Cloud II 7.1 Channel, S.S Arctis 5 7.1Roccat Kain 200 AIMOLogitech G403 HeroASUS TUF VG27WQ 1440P 165 HzASUS VG34VQL1B 34" 1440P Ultrawide 165 HzCrucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME 2xSamsung 870 QVO 4 TB 2.5" SSDFractal Design Meshify 2 XL Case

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1 minute ago, xAuth1 said:

But I'm looking and can easily find 2 molex to 8-pin connectors, that would work easily right?

only in the same way that two people could sit in a single car seat and share a seatbelt........

I probably should of asked earlier , Is this machine important or is this just for fun and it doesn;t matter if the components fry?

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28 minutes ago, emosun said:

only in the same way that two people could sit in a single car seat and share a seatbelt........

I probably should of asked earlier , Is this machine important or is this just for fun and it doesn;t matter if the components fry?

Isn't it a bit too harsh? It's the same power that would go from a normal 8-pin connector, just through molex. I know things happen, but I think you're a bit too paranoid about this. It's not like any adapter for more than 0.4 amper is deadly and will murder your family with passion, it's just a slightly worse option than getting a new PSU. And I just checked it, the 2 pins one the left are ground anyway, so they're literally just bonus pins if the other ground ones fail.

 

So i renew my question looking for serious answers. Will my GPU go through POST and work as it would with 2 8-pin connectors, or will there be some serious consequences/performance issues with it? 

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1 hour ago, xAuth1 said:

So i renew my question looking for serious answers. Will my GPU go through POST and work as it would with 2 8-pin connectors, or will there be some serious consequences/performance issues with it? 

If you decide to use it, please do run Furmark and report back. I'm really curious how a 10year old 444W group regulated psu(multi rail btw), with 240W on gpu rail behaves with 250W+ transient spikes that the 3070 has.

 

Igorslab says that it can pull up to 380W for a very short time.

https://www.igorslab.de/en/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-founders-edition-in-test-ampere-can-also-economic-and-cuddly-small/12/

Interim 15 T200 OKF("F" intel processors are specifically archituctured for gaming) maybe upgrad to 13'900 | Peeralight cpu fan | Stryx Z690-A Wife(which is branded by ASUS and it's ROG label) | Thermotake 16x 8x2GO SODINM 2400mjz cl22 (2 of them with the mood lighting) | 980 EVO 1TB m.2 ssd card + Kensington 2TB SATA nvme + WD BLACK PRO ULTRA MAX 4TB GAMING DESTROYER HHD | Echa etc 3060 duel fan dissipator 12 GBi and Azrock with the radian 550 XT Tiachi | NEXT H510 Vit Klar Svart | Seasonice 600watts voeding(rated for 100.000 hours, running since 2010, ballpark estimate 8 hours a day which should make it good for 34 years) | Nocturna case fans | 0LED Duel moniter

 

New build in progress: Ryen™ 8 7700x3D with a copper pipe fan | Z60e-A | Kingstron RENEGATE 16x2 Go hyenix | Phantek 2 the thar mesh in front | lead lex black label psu + AsiaHorse białe/białe | 1080 Pro 8TB 15800MB/S NvMe(for gaming this increase fps and charging time, cooled by a M.2 slot with coolblock and additional thermopad) and faster 4000GB HHD | MAI GeForce GTX 2070 Ti

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7 hours ago, xAuth1 said:

Isn't it a bit too harsh? It's the same power that would go from a normal 8-pin connector, just through molex. I know things happen, but I think you're a bit too paranoid about this. It's not like any adapter for more than 0.4 amper is deadly and will murder your family with passion, it's just a slightly worse option than getting a new PSU. And I just checked it, the 2 pins one the left are ground anyway, so they're literally just bonus pins if the other ground ones fail.

 

So i renew my question looking for serious answers. Will my GPU go through POST and work as it would with 2 8-pin connectors, or will there be some serious consequences/performance issues with it? 

quick question

If there was no senario where our advice would be considered , was there any particular reason you were asking?

Because it's already well known not to use molex adapters. It's already well known to not skimp on a power supply. and it's already well known that any power supply that does't have the proper connectors is extremely underspecced and outdated.

We're only stating well known "no no's" of the pc building world so if you were hoping we'd blindly endorse a bad idea then we really can;t help you there.

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7 hours ago, Ralf said:

I'm really curious how a 10year old 444W group regulated psu(multi rail btw), with 240W on gpu rail behaves with 250W+ transient spikes that the 3070 has.

I'm starting to think maybe I should just grab the popcorn and wait to see what happens. I tried my best but I can;t make people do anything really.

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13 hours ago, xAuth1 said:

 

But I'm looking and can easily find 2 molex to 8-pin connectors, that would work easily right? I know getting a new one is the easiest and the best solution, but I don't mind tinkering a bit and mostly I'm simply curious if something like that would possible.

It's possible, in the same way that it's possible to drive with your elbows on the steering wheel instead of your hands

 

Many things are possible. Many things are also ill advised or unsafe and introduce additional or unnecessary risk into otherwise mundane situations.

 

Your plan should work. Probably. For at least a while. Maybe a long while. But you're adding unnecessary risk and a clear point of failure, especially one that will affect what is now the newest, likely most expensive part of your build: your shiny new GPU. Those molex to GPU connectors have a long track record of failure, damage, or causing undesirable behavior/crashes in other builds.

 

Best practices exist for a reason, but you can certainly ignore them. No one here will spend your money for you. 

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A molex connector is rated for 5A of current ... so each molex would only be able to safely transfer 5A x 12v = 60 Watts. This means a 2xmolex => pci-e 8 pin adapter cable would in theory only be good for around 120 watts. 

It happens to work for most video cards with a single 8 pin connector, because most such cards don't pull 150 watts through the connector, majority will only take around 90-100w and the rest through the pci-e slot on the motherboard. 

 

In your case, the RTX 3070 is a power hungry card, which often hits 250 watts in gaming, but also has spikes up to 300w or so, for brief periods of times (milliseconds). 

This means the card will probably take around 60w through the pci-e slot, and the remaining of around 200 watts will be split across the two 8 pin connectors.... but like I said, from time to time you'll have small bursts that will make the card pull more than 200w through those 2 8 pin connectors. 

So with a 2xmolex -> pci-e 8pin adapter cable you'll often hit the maximum the cable can do, and you will risk the connectors melting or the wires of the adapter cable burning up. 

 

If you want to try and burn your power supply and potentially other components , there are pci-e 6pin to pci-e 8 pin adapter cables, there's 8 pin to 2 x 8 pin pci-e adapter cables ...  but it doesn't change the fact that the psu is still not adequate for powering that video card. 

 

here's example  6 pin to 8 pin adapter cable : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Matters-2-Pack-6-Pin-Adapter/dp/B01DV1Z32Y/

here's example 6 pin to 2 x 8 pin adapter cable : https://www.amazon.co.uk/ZSHYBER-Adapter-Express-Extension-Splitter/dp/B08ZSV7WGV/

here's example of 8 pin to 2 x 8 pin adapter cable (can plug the 6 pin in the 8pin) : https://www.amazon.co.uk/PCI-Express-Graphics-Adapter-Supply-Extension/dp/B09329FNRK/

 

 

If the dual rail thing is true, then you have a max 25A rail  and a max 20A rail but I don't know how those rails are split.  If the molex connectors are on the same rail as the pci-e 8 pin connector, then you will exceed the 20A or 25A threshold with the video card alone, and the power supply would shut down. 

 

The usual would be to have one rail for CPU and one pci-e cable , and another rail for peripherals and another pci-e cable... but the psu could be lying and you could have single rail. 

 

And last but not least ... it's a barely bronze efficiency 230v only psu, it will be 80% efficiency when it pushes 350-400w to components (your video card and cpu) - that means the fan will run at nearly 100% trying to keep it cool and the psu will be VERY hot , which increases the risk of it crapping out on you.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone. Sorry for no updates but I kinda forgot about this thread with school starting and I was too hooked on replaying cyberpunk on ultra with ~50fps in my free time. I tried to hookup the GPU without the 2 connectors and it worked. Of course I didn't overload it and made sure that there was nothing that could make any spikes in power usage. I played a bit of indie games and it worked flawlessly. Of course now I swapped my PSU for a Chieftec A90 750W 80 Plus Gold.

Thanks for trying to help and sorry if I seemed a bit salty.

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1 hour ago, xAuth1 said:

Hey everyone. Sorry for no updates but I kinda forgot about this thread with school starting and I was too hooked on replaying cyberpunk on ultra with ~50fps in my free time. I tried to hookup the GPU without the 2 connectors and it worked. Of course I didn't overload it and made sure that there was nothing that could make any spikes in power usage. I played a bit of indie games and it worked flawlessly. Of course now I swapped my PSU for a Chieftec A90 750W 80 Plus Gold.

Thanks for trying to help and sorry if I seemed a bit salty.

So you replaced one decade old PSU with another one? Maybe I should get a Akyga or Kolink 1000W for the 1k€ 6900XT rather than buying a HX1000i for 200€+, would save me like 150€ on the PSU.

Interim 15 T200 OKF("F" intel processors are specifically archituctured for gaming) maybe upgrad to 13'900 | Peeralight cpu fan | Stryx Z690-A Wife(which is branded by ASUS and it's ROG label) | Thermotake 16x 8x2GO SODINM 2400mjz cl22 (2 of them with the mood lighting) | 980 EVO 1TB m.2 ssd card + Kensington 2TB SATA nvme + WD BLACK PRO ULTRA MAX 4TB GAMING DESTROYER HHD | Echa etc 3060 duel fan dissipator 12 GBi and Azrock with the radian 550 XT Tiachi | NEXT H510 Vit Klar Svart | Seasonice 600watts voeding(rated for 100.000 hours, running since 2010, ballpark estimate 8 hours a day which should make it good for 34 years) | Nocturna case fans | 0LED Duel moniter

 

New build in progress: Ryen™ 8 7700x3D with a copper pipe fan | Z60e-A | Kingstron RENEGATE 16x2 Go hyenix | Phantek 2 the thar mesh in front | lead lex black label psu + AsiaHorse białe/białe | 1080 Pro 8TB 15800MB/S NvMe(for gaming this increase fps and charging time, cooled by a M.2 slot with coolblock and additional thermopad) and faster 4000GB HHD | MAI GeForce GTX 2070 Ti

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36 minutes ago, Ralf said:

So you replaced one decade old PSU with another one? Maybe I should get a Akyga or Kolink 1000W for the 1k€ 6900XT rather than buying a HX1000i for 200€+, would save me like 150€ on the PSU.

What do you mean a decade old? I got it brand new. And chieftech is a great brand with a lot of positive opinions and I've never had, or heard about anyone having any trouble with their merchandise.

It has all the safety measurements and works great. I think you just have some weird superstitions about needing everything to be new, modern, and that if something doesn't come with the most contemporary technologies then it's garbage. Just because it isn't a standard firm like corsair or silentiumpc doesn't mean it's bad or will blow up my computer. Also chieftec is a well known, respected and regularely seen brand in my location.

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11 hours ago, xAuth1 said:

What do you mean a decade old? I got it brand new. And chieftech is a great brand with a lot of positive opinions and I've never had, or heard about anyone having any trouble with their merchandise.

It has all the safety measurements and works great. I think you just have some weird superstitions about needing everything to be new, modern, and that if something doesn't come with the most contemporary technologies then it's garbage. Just because it isn't a standard firm like corsair or silentiumpc doesn't mean it's bad or will blow up my computer. Also chieftec is a well known, respected and regularely seen brand in my location.

Chieftec's reputation comes when they used Delta Oem like 10-15 years ago, nowadays people buy it cuz it's cheap and brand name. There are good Chieftec PSU's, but A90 isnt one of them, not something I would use for a gpu that I need to save money for months to buy.

Interim 15 T200 OKF("F" intel processors are specifically archituctured for gaming) maybe upgrad to 13'900 | Peeralight cpu fan | Stryx Z690-A Wife(which is branded by ASUS and it's ROG label) | Thermotake 16x 8x2GO SODINM 2400mjz cl22 (2 of them with the mood lighting) | 980 EVO 1TB m.2 ssd card + Kensington 2TB SATA nvme + WD BLACK PRO ULTRA MAX 4TB GAMING DESTROYER HHD | Echa etc 3060 duel fan dissipator 12 GBi and Azrock with the radian 550 XT Tiachi | NEXT H510 Vit Klar Svart | Seasonice 600watts voeding(rated for 100.000 hours, running since 2010, ballpark estimate 8 hours a day which should make it good for 34 years) | Nocturna case fans | 0LED Duel moniter

 

New build in progress: Ryen™ 8 7700x3D with a copper pipe fan | Z60e-A | Kingstron RENEGATE 16x2 Go hyenix | Phantek 2 the thar mesh in front | lead lex black label psu + AsiaHorse białe/białe | 1080 Pro 8TB 15800MB/S NvMe(for gaming this increase fps and charging time, cooled by a M.2 slot with coolblock and additional thermopad) and faster 4000GB HHD | MAI GeForce GTX 2070 Ti

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