this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Powering my GPU and rails (programming.dev)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/buildapc
 

This will likely have some technical inaccuracies because I've never dealt with something this specific with PSUs. I have two slots for PCIe. I have a 3070 ti which has two 8 pin connectors. Each of this PSU's cords for the PCIe slots (minus that mysterious 600W one which I think is not for anything I'm doing due to the size) goes from the 12 pin on the PSU to two separate 8 pin connectors (well, 6 with the optional 2).

My gut feeling is to just plug a single cord from the PCIe slots I to the two slots on my GPU. But I'm wondering about what would happen if I plugged two cords into the PCIe slots separately and then put a single connector into the GPU from each. Would that be better/worse/the same/catastrophic?

I'm wondering if it has something to do with dividing the current among the different rails in the PSU or something? It has a little jumper to enable "overclocking" which does something like combining the rails, but I'd rather not fool with that. And it also might be totally unrelated to the other question. The jumper is, of course, just out of view of the pic, but it's also not really relevant.

Edit: I went with one and it's working fine.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The 12 pin delivers more than enough juice for that card, so the single cable will be just fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Okay, so in theory if I had a beefier card I'd need to use two cables, one going to 12v3 and another to 12v4? If that's the case I might wire it up like that just in case I ever decide to upgrade and I lose the cables or something.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I have the 3090 and it came with a Y shaped power connector

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Possibly, but for instance my 40 series has a single power connect and uses the crazy octopus cable, so totally different. I also did not see mention of your PSU wattage. Depending on how beefy the next card is, that might need an upgrade, too. You really don't need two separate cables for that card, in terms of power draw, though.