Should I power a Rog Strix RTX 3060Ti with a single cable?

[Wheeeeeze]

So ordered a new gpu couple of weeks back and it should arrive today. The issue is, I realized too late that my PSU (EVGA W2 600W) comes only with a single PCIe cable with 2x8pin connectors on it (GPU requres 2x8pin). 

The power draw for the card is at about 200W, with some reviewers saying that they have managed to go well above that (in the range of 240-260ish).

 

At best what could happen it could crash due to not enough power, or at worst I could fry the cables and PSU.

Is it time for a PSU upgrade or I'm just overthinking things?

[aDoomGuy]

If memory serves a PCIe pwr cable support 150W. The PCIE slot support 75W. The power draw from what I can see of the 3060ti is up to 200W. You shouldn't need a second power cable as I think the EVGA PSU is decent enough with decent enough cables.

 

I'm drawing 240W (measured with GPU-z) on a single cable without any problem with a 2080 which is slightly above the rated spec so you should be fine with a single as long it's quality is decent enough.

[--SID--]

40 minutes ago, Wheeeeeze said:

The issue is, I realized too late that my PSU (EVGA W2 600W) comes only with a single PCIe cable with 2x8pin connectors on it (GPU requres 2x8pin).

You have to replace the PSU because it's a garbage group regulated unit that you don't want to use in any system with dGPU. Tier E in this Tier list.

[Alex Atkin UK]

25 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

If memory serves a PCIe pwr cable support 150W. The PCIE slot support 75W. The power draw from what I can see of the 3060ti is up to 200W. You shouldn't need a second power cable as I think the EVGA PSU is decent enough with decent enough cables.

Right, its 150W per 8 pin plug, not cable.  That's why you can push 600W down two cables using four plugs, as long as the PSU is following the rules for decent cabling.

[aDoomGuy]

8 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Right, its 150W per 8 pin plug, not cable.  That's why you can push 600W down two cables using four plugs, as long as the PSU is following the rules for decent cabling.

Oooooh yeah that's right lol 

 

I'm so silly in the morning.  To be fair it wasn't even 8 o'clock yet.

[Wheeeeeze]

43 minutes ago, --SID-- said:

You have to replace the PSU because it's a garbage group regulated unit that you don't want to use in any system with dGPU. Tier E in this Tier list.

Garbage group asside, it was bought during the COVID pandemic as a starting point, with no issues on R5 3600, GTX 1660S and 16GB of RAM (nothing overclocked). Since that I've been replacing certain parts and adding more in to the system. I will be replacing it for sure sometime down the line, but as I've just splurged a lot of money for my brothers system and my new GPU, I honestly do not have any more room for a new PSU as well. If my system will be stable for 2-3 months, I'll go for a new PSU then.

[Wheeeeeze]

21 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Right, its 150W per 8 pin plug, not cable.  That's why you can push 600W down two cables using four plugs, as long as the PSU is following the rules for decent cabling.

So basically 300W on one cable (2 connectors) will do at least for a while?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

4 minutes ago, Wheeeeeze said:

Garbage group asside, it was bought during the COVID pandemic as a starting point, with no issues on R5 3600, GTX 1660S and 16GB of RAM (nothing overclocked). Since that I've been replacing certain parts and adding more in to the system. I will be replacing it for sure sometime down the line, but as I've just splurged a lot of money for my brothers system and my new GPU, I honestly do not have any more room for a new PSU as well. If my system will be stable for 2-3 months, I'll go for a new PSU then.

If its working fine theres no reason to swap it so dont worry about that, psus only job is to reliably power your system without fail and if that "garbage" 600w can do that just fine and has been doing that just fine for awhile theres no reason to bother swapping the psu to some "better" unit based on arbitrary tiers, they arent meaningless but its stupid to say a psu that works completely fine and has been fine for awhile needs to be replaced because its in a low tier

 

Source? 11 year old dazumba 450w powering my x58 and 775 oc shenanigans just fine without fail or any noticable issues, maybe efficiency is bad since well its 11 years old and its a psu youd find in an internet cafe but otherwise nothing to complain about. And no i wont be replacing this thing for a long while so either it dies naturally (maybe in a few years, not exactly indestructable but id expect another 2-4 years of life) or i need more power from my psu cause 450w gonna cap me at some point and likely pretty soon when i bother getting my loop assembled cause i dont think x58 is very power efficient

[Wheeeeeze]

4 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

If its working fine theres no reason to swap it so dont worry about that, psus only job is to reliably power your system without fail and if that "garbage" 600w can do that just fine and has been doing that just fine for awhile theres no reason to bother swapping the psu to some "better" unit based on arbitrary tiers, they arent meaningless but its stupid to say a psu that works completely fine and has been fine for awhile needs to be replaced because its in a low tier

 

Source? 11 year old dazumba 450w powering my x58 and 775 oc shenanigans just fine without fail or any noticable issues, maybe efficiency is bad since well its 11 years old and its a psu youd find in an internet cafe but otherwise nothing to complain about. And no i wont be replacing this thing for a long while so either it dies naturally (maybe in a few years, not exactly indestructable but id expect another 2-4 years of life) or i need more power from my psu cause 450w gonna cap me at some point and likely pretty soon when i bother getting my loop assembled cause i dont think x58 is very power efficient

Exactly, My old system had some Corsair 550W PSU that had a fan break off some years ago, and boy does it still work today after 10+ years of toiling away.

But since I'm an architect and I do a lot of 3D modeling and rendering. Upgrading is something that I'll have to do to speed up my workflow. I will be getting a better cooling solution after new year, so there will be more power requirement. But until then, this one will have to do.

[jaslion]

22 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

If its working fine theres no reason to swap it so dont worry about that, psus only job is to reliably power your system without fail and if that "garbage" 600w can do that just fine and has been doing that just fine for awhile theres no reason to bother swapping the psu to some "better" unit based on arbitrary tiers, they arent meaningless but its stupid to say a psu that works completely fine and has been fine for awhile needs to be replaced because its in a low tier

Bad advice. A known bad psu can work fine all its life true but thats literally just luck.

 

Changing anything about a power load can trigger it and make it go nuclear. The w1 and w2 are a bit better than randomly kills your pc psus but not much. They will function but have known issues and arent good units that use very old ways to power a system.

 

If ever a power spike happens this unit can pass it through to the pc parts and that usually means death for component(s)

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Changing anything about a power load can trigger it and make it go nuclear.

Like changing power draw?

 

I switch between platforms most notably being x58 which is real power hungry (prob alot more than 775), screwed around with x58 oc and no issues with the psu blowing up or something

 

Although if it is known bad in that case sure changing the psu is a good idea but if its just an arbitrary low tier with no psu going kaboom or murdering components issues then i dont really see a reason to replace the psu, again psus only job is to reliably power a computer, if it can do that then its totally fine

 

a known bad unit with known issues like going kaboom or murdering hardware but working fine yea swapping the psu is ideal but itll work in a pinch (assuming pc configuration and power draw dont change), if its just a low tier unit with no known murdering hardware or explosion issues then no reason to swap

 

 

In this case since psu is known bad and can have hardware murdering or explosion issues then yes replace it to something that wont blow up or murder hardware, higher "tiers" are preffered if its not that expensive since psus last a long time if that isnt evident already but anything that wont explode or murder hardware will work

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Like changing power draw?

 

I switch between platforms most notably being x58 which is real power hungry (prob alot more than 775), screwed around with x58 oc and no issues with the psu blowing up or something

 

Although if it is known bad in that case sure changing the psu is a good idea but if its just an arbitrary low tier with no psu going kaboom or murdering components issues then i dont really see a reason to replace the psu, again psus only job is to reliably power a computer, if it can do that then its totally fine

 

a known bad unit with known issues like going kaboom or murdering hardware but working fine yea swapping the psu is ideal but itll work in a pinch (assuming pc configuration and power draw dont change), if its just a low tier unit with no known murdering hardware or explosion issues then no reason to swap

 

 

In this case since psu is known bad and can have hardware murdering or explosion issues then yes replace it to something that wont blow up or murder hardware, higher "tiers" are preffered if its not that expensive since psus last a long time if that isnt evident already but anything that wont explode or murder hardware will work

This ones fault is using low end components and being group regulated as well as not doing a good job keeping a stable voltage and passing through net spikes. Not healthy but wont usually kill a system outright.

 

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

58 minutes ago, jaslion said:

This ones fault is using low end components and being group regulated as well as not doing a good job keeping a stable voltage and passing through net spikes. Not healthy but wont usually kill a system outright.

Oh, if its that kind of "issue" then i wouldnt really be concerned, i mean when i used crappy oem psus that got upto 14v on the 12v rail due to ass regulation on my p5q its still alive and shows literally no sign of degradation

 

I dont think unstable volt will be much of a worry till its out of atx voltage spec like my garbage oem psus, i forgot what the tolerances are but if those tolerances arent surpassed then i dont see an issue here

 

I wouldnt bother replacing the psu if its just minor potential issues like that which dont straight up murder the pc, have never seen any reports of hardware degrading faster due to excessive psu voltage nor have i experienced such a thing (it was unstable like that for a few months actually, especially when ocing), no reports of degradation or hardware being killed then i wont belive it just like i do with bullshit overly conservative safe voltages on older hardware ruining overclocks with no evidence of degradation or hardware "death" to back it up