Stop Connecting Your GPU Power Cables Like This! (How To PROPERLY Connect PCIe Cables For GPUs)
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2024
- It's really easy to accidentally UNDERPOWER your graphics card by using a split pigtail cable (also called y-splitter) for 2 or 3 of the PCIe connections on the GPU. Unfortunately a PCIe cable can supply as little as 150 watts from your PSU to the GPU, resulting in too low power being supplied to some graphics cards - especially ones with a TDP above 225W.
This isn't an exact science, though, because the motherboard PCIe slot supplies 75 watts or so, and some PCIe cables/PSUs can supply MORE than 150 watts.
In general though, I dive into exactly what you need to know here so that you can PROPERLY connect up - and power - your graphics card.
00:00 Intro
00:40 Motherboard PCIe Slot
01:27 Cable Gauge/AWG Limits
02:03 Run 2 Separate PCIe Cables
03:53 What About 3 PCIe Pin Cards?
05:28 Multiple PCIe Cables Are UGLY
06:18 PCIe v5 12 Pin Connectors
07:04 Final Thoughts
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#GPU #PCIe #PSU 
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Finally, someone explained what power supply I need for my GPU... Thank you so much
Awesome, glad to have helped 🙂
The gauge of the wire is the limiting factor. But, most folks aren't going to be able to discern whether or not _their_ cables are of sufficient gauge to be 'safe' or not. Typically, you get what you pay for. Platinum rated PSUs _should_ come with thicker gauge wire, but not always. I bought an uncommon brand Platinum PSU, because it was quite a bit cheaper than say a Seasonic Platinum PSU. And it came with woefully inadequate cables. So, I painstakingly removed each wire from the connector and remade them out of high quality wire and connector pins that I had to order and wait for them to arrive. It ended up costing about the same as that spiffy Seasonic PSU that's still in my 'wish list'. Never skimp on your PSU, Never skimp on your PSU. Hello from Frozen Hell Alaska. You got yourself another sub.
Thanks for the comment and that's all a great point. I wish the cable guage was clearly advertised by the PSU maker. Definitely not worth skimping on, agreed. Thanks for the sub 🙂
ur advice actully helped me on this case
Great, glad it helped 🙂
Very informative. Thank you for sharing !
Thanks, glad to help 🙂
This was a great explanation, thanks!
Glad you liked it 🙂
I Wish we have this kind of video here in Brazil, because it helps a lot...Thank youuu!!
Thanks for that, glad it helped 🙂
Thanks well explained, very informative video,
Thanks, glad you found it helpful 🙂
thanks this video help me so much!!! 10/10
Good advice. Thank you.
Thanks, glad it was helpful 🙂
Been having a really hard time figuring out my first build. Trying to connect my SF750 PSU to my 4070 Super and it's just not clicking for me. You pointed me in the right direction! Thanks!
Glad this helped you out 🙂
Thank you for the advise.
@@TheDamoklesPrime no worries, hope it helped 🙂
That's crazy I was on reddit and read this exact comment! Right before I went to buy a new cable I found this video lol
Haha that's funny 😆 Google/RUclips is always listening... 😬
(Kidding, I hope!)
Great helpful video thanks. I just upgraded to a 1000 watt SFX-L from a ATX 850 watt now I have 6 PCIe connectors ( though not sure why one would need that many), it also came with that weird 12pin thing. I found about not using the pig-tail a few years ago as my gpu kept crashing.
Thanks, glad you liked it 🙂 Woah, 6 PCIe connectors is quite a lot! My Corsair Rm750x only has 2, but sometimes that does seem too limited tbh. Sounds like your PSU is fairly future proofed which is good.
Maybe for those crazy rich people who want to plug 2 x RTX 4090 :D
Great video, helpful, clean, simple and informative! I'll let you know if I blow up my new RX 7900 GRE!
Thanks, glad you liked it and congrats on the awesome GPU - I hope it works out for you 🙂
Thanks for the explanation, sub + like
Thanks man, I appreciate it 🙂
That was a clear explanation and useful video, i still have a question though;
Can i use a different PCI-E cable than the ones i had with my PSU ? _(i lost them)_
i've read it can damage or kill your GPU / PSU if it's not from the same manufacturer
Thanks :) And yes, great question. It can be fine to use different PCI-E cables yes - many people use CableMod (for example) because they prefer how they look, compared to the standard PSU ones. The main issue (with buying non-manufacturer cables) is if you purchase really low quality ones from a no-name company, since that could introduce potential risks. But a quality third party PCI-E cable should be fine.
@@TechOverwrite got it, i'm going to use those I kept from my old PSU _(which wasn't Bad at all)_ so I think I should be fine, just hope that the pins fit the slots 🤞🏼
Thanks dude, really helpful, I subbed, which is very rare coming from me 😉
@@Reyvius78 @TechOverwrite Should you use the PCIe cables that come with the PSU always then the extension cables dont really matter as long as they are a good brand or I got it wrong. Would swear I read about this somewhere.
Well one thing I’m relieved I didn’t get a 7900 xtx because three of those things would’ve been fun to hook up and I’ll be looking forward to seeing the videos
My PSU is getting on a few years (2020) but at gold rated 850w it has never given me any issues, my question here is, my PSU is not modular and only has one "pig tail" cable as an option. Given the fact that the +12v rail is rated 380W/72A max I have not had any issues (afaik) with my current card. However if I swap out my current RTX 3080 for something more power hungry soon, is it going to be best (more stable) to swap my PSU?
Hmm that's a tricky one. The RTX 3080 is fairly power hungry but as you say, your PCIe supply should be sufficient. You could always try it out and just look out for crashes etc. Personally if I was doing an upgrade and could afford a new PSU, I would do that too. But it doesn't sound like you're immediately going to have issues with your current PSU. It's not like you have a decade old PSU and are trying to power a 4090 or something 🙂
@@TechOverwrite Thanks for the response.
This reassured me that I didn't hook up my graphics card wrong on my first PC build a few months ago. When I saw that my graphics card (3060ti) had two connectors for power, and my power supply came with 2 pci-e power cables with the correct ends to fit the graphics card (one of them had this dredded y-splitter), my first instinct was actually to use the two separate cables instead of just the one with a y-splitter, since I knew that the splitter wasn't magically going to increase the amount of power the cable can provide. I'm glad my instinct was right. I'm also glad I went with a modular PSU for this reason, since apparently non-modular PSUs often only have the 1 pci-e connector with a pigtail splitter.
One connector with the y-splitter probably would have been fine in my case, since I think my GPU's TDP is only 200W, but if cables normally only provide about 150watts each, there could have certainly been occasions where my GPU would be underpowered in some modern games. Thankfully (probably because I used two cables instead of one in the first place) I have not had any crashes at all!
Glad to have helped 🙂 It does seem almost too simple to just use the y splitter, but I also had similar instincts to you. It didn't 'feel' to use a single cable for a modern/powerful GPU.
I accidentally connected my cables correctly then 😂 As a beginner builder, I was unsure because I've seen others do it the "pigtail" way and that's why I'm here now, watching this, but no, my gut feeling was correct! Thank you for the helpful tips! To clarify, I connected my Sapphire 7900 XT (331 W) to the PSU with two different cables. I've tried to do some "stress testing" aka gaming with ultra settings, and it all looks good on the dashboard!
Haha, yes sounds like you've done it right 🙂 Hope your new build is working out well for you 💪
@@TechOverwrite Thank you! It has been so far 👍
I love how he still replies to every single comment of people needing help, lots of creators just make the video and let the viewer figure the rest out for themselves. As for my experience a 7900 xt with daisy chain cables (im very inexperienced with building and will probably swap it out for 2 now thanks) works just fine. Im not gonna pretend to know why but just putting it out there. My psu is a MSI A850G 850W for clarity. Maybe it is capping the power usage of the card and not getting full performance but it seems to run everything great even with raytracing.
Thanks, I appreciate that ☺️ I'm glad your cable config is working out well for you - that's the main thing to be honest. It'd be different if you were having crashes etc but you're clearly fine here, which is great. Happy gaming!
I own a 6600XT and I'm experiencing frequent drops in GPU usage and spikes in frame times, regardless of the game I'm playing. I have connected the GPU using a pigtailed cable, with the pigtail left not plugged. Could this connection be causing my performance issues? Would reversing the connection, plugging the pigtailed side into the PSU and the PSU side into the GPU, make any difference?
I wouldn't try and plug the pigtail end into the PSU no, I doubt that would work unfortunately. Sorry to hear of the weird GPU issues. That's not the most powerful hungry of cards so just powering it with 1 cable should be fine. If it needs 2 connectors, do try and use the pigtail just to see if that makes any difference. But otherwise, it might be a PSU or GPU fault (unfortunately).
Dear Sir I have been having black screen GPU crashes for weeks...Long story short...You are THE MAN !!! Thank you something so simple. But I do know home wiring great analogy.😀
Hah, that's awesome - glad you got it sorted due to this video 🙂
Same here I've had my gpu shutdown ever since I've built my pc and didnt know why but have switched the cables and for now it has not happened again yet so I think it might be fixed
after search for many help. I found you. May you help me with my gpu with single 8pin, which psu should i have for that? I've already burnt the old 1 which I didn't know that 6+2 pcie didn't work on my Sapphire rx 590 8gb.
Yikes, are you saying that your old PSU burnt out? (Sorry if so, that sucks 😔). Pretty much any modern PSU with 2 PCIe ports should be able to power an RX 590 though.
I have an RX 6750 XT and PSU is Corsair RM650. Im planing on getting some extension cables. The GPU has 250 W TDP. How do I know if my PCIe cable can handle more than 150 W and if it can would an 8 pin PICe extension cable still work (only 1 PICe cable from the PSU), like would having the extension cable with the stock PSU PCIe cable not really work in that example. Great video, thanks.
To be honest I usually just Google the PSU make and see what the cable guage is ("RM650 PCIe guage"). In this case it seems likely that it's a 16g PCIe cable so you should be absolutely fine here, with a 250W cable. Although yes, if you use an extension cable then you would need to check the guage for that too.
My 6700xt shows around 193w pwr draw on RTSS. Was wondering if its still safe to use pigtail? Or i should run multiple cables?
Ooo good question. On that basis, 1 cable with a pigtail would be fine yes - but avoid overlclocking it lol 😆 I have the 6700xt too and I do use 2 cables, but that's mainly for personal preference ('just in-case efc')
Oh my god i was about to sell my pc
Hah glad this helped you out 🙂
What gpu you was using?
😢😢i returned my GPU because of thay😂😂😂😂😂i was using a 7800xt and i started to have crazy coil whine and fps drops everytime the coil whine happened
@@jokerbeatzholyjesusinspira7581 haha yikes, glad you got it figured out in the end though 😆
Can I still use two separate cables if my gpu has a splitter cable that goes from one plug into the graphics card and then splits into two cables that you then have to plug two separate cables into them that are plugged into the psu for the power. It is a 4070 TI.
I'm not too sure sorry, I'm struggling to visualise that PSU/PCIe cable setup. Are you able to link the PSU manual online or show what those cables look like please? Generally speaking though, you would ideally want two separate power sources (cables) for the 4070 Ti, and hopefully your PSU does work okay here. It sounds like it might 🤞
I'm planning to get an Arc A750, my PSU is a DeepCool DN500 which only has one 6+2 pigtail. Should I be fine daisy chaining it since A750 has exactly 225W TDP? I'm also planning to undervolt it to save on electricity
Yes that should work fine, as you say - especially if you're planning on undervolting it. Happy gaming 🙂
Hello there , got a loki 1000w for a new build with a 7900 xtx (not yet bought).
The psu comes with the new gen 12vhpwr(psu) to 12vhpwr (PCIE) for the lastest nvidia gpu cards. But it comes with another cable 12vhpwr (PSU) that split into 2 6+2 pin cable(PCIE) for older gpu or radeon gpu that still use the old 8 pin.
Is that Cable plus a single 8(psu) pin to 8 pin(pcie) enough to power a 7900 xtx? couldnt find any answer even on reddit
Hello, oof, great question. I don't know for sure (sorry!) since I haven't really explored Loki PSUs. But my hunch is that it 'should' be fine, yes: the 355W TDP of the 7900 XTX should be covered off fine with two separate cables, especially because the 12vhpwr cable is ultimately designed to deliver a lot more power than the standard '150w or so' of a PCIe cable.
My gosh thank you thank you thank you. I just bought a huge upgrade for my pc and was so confused on why my games keept crashing.
Glad that this helped you out then - happy gaming 🙂
My gpu is RTX 4070 Super, which is 220w TDP. Can using two separate cables from the PSU damage it? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to using 1 vs 2 in this case? My psu is Seasonic 850w. Thanks!
Using 2 cables would be fine - it certainly wouldn't damage the GPU (or PSU) no 🙂 You should be fine using 1 cable with a pigtail too to be honest, just be sure to avoid overlclocking the GPU since you'd be close to the power limit here.
So if I have a 7600XT. The devil spawn I put in the GPU should retired and use 2, 8-pin connector. Or got 2 devil spawn cuz the pcie 8-pin connector are not made to deliver 150W each ?
You'll probably be fine here to use a single cable with devil spawn connector lol 😆 The motherboard PCIe slot supplies 75 watts too so even if your PSU cables do just supply the 150w and no more, you're still over the TDP for your 7600XT.
Would you be able to cut the daisy chains off, as my pc has 4 daisy chains floating inside the case, i know i could zip tie them down but they still look horrible, would cutting them off be safe?
I doubt you can, unfortunately. The cable would presumably still have live current flowing down the ends (where it was cut off). I agree they look horrible 😞
I have a 5600xt that asks for 150w which is failing atm (sad about it). I plan on upgrading to a 7700xt which asks for 260w. Power calculators say that I am good (close call) with my corsair vs650w PSU. However, the wired PSU only provides one pcie connector with pigtail. Do I need to scrap my 1pcie PSU and get a modular one to have multiple cables for now and to the future? Or can I wing with the pigtail connector?
Hmm, it's a difficult one. In general I wouldn't probably want to power a 260W GPU using a single cable (sorry). I mean, it might work if you don't stretch things too much (like constantly maxing out the GPU), but it's hard to say for sure. If you can afford it, I would upgrade the PSU. But worst case, maybe look at slightly undervolting the GPU? Good luck 🤞
@@TechOverwrite Thank you. Yes I will undervolt it.
Thank goodness I finally found a good video explaining this abomination of a cable lol.
Lol thanks, I hate this cable too much to not moan about it 😅
@@TechOverwrite I have been using my 3080 for about 2 years with this cable and upgraded to a 4070 ti super. The pamphlet that comes with the 12 pin connector specifically says not to use it and now I am wondering if this whole time my 3080 wasn't running at it's full potential lol.
Say you needed 3 pcie 8 pins for gpu, could you use two single 8 pins, and one from the piggy back and be good?
Yes I cover this point later in the video, but that should be fine assuming the TDP of the card isn't massive 🙂
I have a graphic card that is connected to the mother board slot. I bought the MSI MAG A55BN power supply that has a PCIe cable. Will the power supply still work or do I need a different power supply unit? I am asking because my Dell Inspiron 5675 still doesn't turn on with the MSI MAG A55BN. Thank you.
I don't know for sure sorry, however I thought that Dels were generally quite hard to upgrade with standard consumer hardware (because they use so many bespoke OEM parts). So it might just be that you're not able to use that PSU (or many other 'off the shelf' PSUs) with your Dell? That would be my guess, anywhoo.
Thank you man
No problem, glad to help 🙂
The pc builder who built my had connected one pcie cable to both using the pigtail thing you say and now I removed it and replaced with another pcie cable. I saw videos where they said it will fry you GPU or damage it, is there a chance it could've happened. I have a RTX 4070 Super.
It's hard to say for sure, but I doubt that your GPU has been permanently damaged. Do you get various crashes and freezes when gaming (even with the two cables)? If so then maybe there's damage, but hopefully things will just be stable for you from now on.
very annoying that my msi mag a650bn only has a single cable with the daisy chained connector. was gonna buy an rx 7800xt for my system but i guess thats off the table now.
Ugh sorry to hear it. Yes that might well be borderline for that card and PSU. There's a chance it'll work, but not if the GPU was stretched or overclocked too much IMO. 😔
Thanks for the video. Could you do more on multiple gpus eg for gaming, deep learning and mining? For example I want to upgrade my gaming pc to also do deep learning at the same time. My computer booted then crashed. I believe it is exactly what you highlighted. My second gpu is not receiving enough power. Ultimately I would like to have 4 gpus to speed up deep learning. I'm not sold on the 4090 or 3090. My 3060 is enough for gaming. I would like to add another 3x 3060s. I feel it will use less electric and be kinder to the environment. I should be able to write my own network client (they call it AI but its really just a personal botnet to speed up deep learning). Cables and hardware advice would be appreciated, software side I can do.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'd love to cover something like that to be honest - my current PC has 64GB of RAM and the thought was occurred to me to add another 2x32GB sticks and run local AI models. If I get the chance (from a budget perspective), I'd like to make content along these lines yes 🙂
I hope you can get your computer boot issues resolved. I think that many multi-GPU rigs end up with two PSUs, essentially powering the other GPUs through a wall socket (well, via the PSU of course!) so I think you're thinking is correct yes.
I'm sorry what about a situation when my GPU has 1 8-pin slot and I have two cables 6+2 + 6+2 (both pigtails as you called it). Is it ok to plug in just one 6+2?
Also my psu is seasonic focus, card is rtx 4070. Don't really want to swithc any of these
I think that you'll be okay here - the card's TDP is around 200W (unless it's an OC model), so a single 6+2 pigtail cable will work fine here IMO. Good luck 🤞
Good to know! Thankfully it seems the card I ordered (Gigabyte EAGLE OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER) comes with a 12VHPWR cable and only draws 220 watts as 600 watts seems quite ambitious for such a small cable to carry???
Yes the 12vhpwr connector is a bit of a scary one 🤯 All the melting connector stories have put me off it to be honest. Yes hopefully you'll have zero issues with the 4070 Super - that strikes a good balance between performance without too much power requirements IMO. Happy gaming 😁
Does it matter which end of the split that gets plugged in to the GPU? I feel like the straight shot would be better than the branched off piece but I can hide the rest easily if I used the branched off piece
I'm AFK currently so can't easily check, but I think it literally just comes down to whether it would physically fit or not.
Bro i have the sapphire nitro+ vapor rx 7900 xtx, and my psu is silverstone da850r i dont know if my cables are enough for the gpu or if the pcie ports from the psu are also enough.
Hope you can help me.
You should be fine here bro 🤞 Your card's TDP is 355W, and your PSU has 4 "CPU/PCIe" slots. Since you're very likely to only need 1 CPU slot, that leaves 3 PCIe slots to power your GPU - which will be more than enough (even 2 cables and using 1 pigtail 'should' be enough too, to be honest).
I need you advice I have a rtx2060 Rog strix but have a mid range power supply courag xtc550 but it has a 8 pin pcie with 8 pin pigtail (has only one ) pcie , my question is should I not use it then save up or use it and save up ( im a broke college student and I need my computer for android development)
You should be fine with that card (to just use 1 cable with the pigtail). If you do somehow have crashes, look at slightly undervolts - but I think you'll be fine 🤞 Good luck with your android dev.
@@TechOverwrite think you I thought I had to get another psu
Are cable extensions fine? Using 2 Separate PCIe cables connected to 2 cable mod extensions
CableMod is often a reputable and quality brand yes, so they should be fine 🤞
You are correct, a cable with a y at the end is still one cable. I do the same thing using 2 cables on the MB CPU cables even though they say if not overclocking you only need one 👍
Thanks for the comment, I think it makes sense to use 2x separate cables for safety for sure 🙂
This might be late but wanted to know if i can use three pcie cables that have pigtails but without attaching the pigtails meaing using the main cable instead of the pigtail
That would be the preferred and safest way to do it, better than using 2 cables and a pigtail from one of those 2 cables.
Yes, the pigtails can be thought of as an off-ramp on a highway. They don’t allow more power “traffic” than the cable is rated for, rather they disperse the whole quantity over 2 plug slots. Using them without attaching the pig tails only means you’ll have pig tails hanging from your GPU unless you use small zip ties to tidy them up, or maybe shrink wrap them to the rest of the cable if you know what you’re doing.
Could this be why my xfx 5700 xt thicc iii isn't displaying? I run a core i5 8500T ,8GB ram and that GPU mentioned above all on a 550w power supply . doesn't display nothing, fans spin and the little led lights on the pins are not red soo i assume power is sufficient but not display am basically running dead system. Haven't found a solution soo i sticked with cheaper GPU for now but i need help, please assist so i can use my powerful gpu to play games on high settings 👌🫸🫷
Ugh sorry to hear that 😕 I doubt using a single cable would result in zero output, but you could always give it a try and plug in a second PCIe cable. If that doesn't work, I would also change the DisplayPort or HDMI cable, and also reset the BIOS by removing the CMOS battery. Good luck 🤞
so could I run the pig tail connector backwards? like the y end in the psu and the single end back into the gpu?
Uhhh, I wouldn't do that 😁 I don't know whether it would physically fit or not, but there's no benefit to plugging 2x ends into the PSU (and 1 into the GPU) - it won't deliver extra power to that single 8 pin end or anything.
Hey! I don’t know why but my gpu and cpu do not perform at the expected range. Fortnite runs at only 100fps from a i78700 and gtx 1080. Any idea why? I don’t know it it’s the psu tho
Hey, it's hard to say for sure sorry but I would check Task Manager and HW Info. Keep a particular eye on temps, and also your CPU or GPU running below it's advertised speeds (i.e. which could be a sign of low power supply or thermal throttling). Although simply getting low FPS in a particular game could also be caused by driver issues, Windows settings and more. Sorry to be vague but there's dozens of possible causes 😔 I hope you can get it fixed though.
My GPU 3060 ti Aorus elite has 220w tdp and use 8+6 pin pcie. Is it fine to use pigtail pcie cable? My Psu xpg pylon 650w and has 18AWG pcie cable according tom's hardware
Yes that should be okay - maybe avoid OCing, but it should work okay with the 'interesting' pigtail connector 🤔
@@TechOverwrite just checked it, the power draw can reach 244w peak, 240w average on benchmark test
Hmm, it's more borderline then 😕 I'd probably run with two separate cables if you're able to, but you could always give it a try and just keep an eye on any crashes, low performance etc.
I have a 2+6 pin pig tail coming off my RTX 4070. Am I supposed to plug those in.
For the 4070 (great card btw 🙂), I would plug in two separate PCIe cables into your PSU, and then just leave the pigtail ends dangling without being used.
Is it okay to use one regular pcie cable and a split cable (not using the split end) on a two pcie slot card?
Yes that would be fine 🙂
@@TechOverwrite Thanks for clearing that up!
Hi, for some reason I want to use my old gpu together with my new gpu.
My specifications
RX 7800XT (2x 8pin) (connected by two cables from the power supply)
RX 570 (1x 8pin) (plan is to connect this pigtail cable from the main 7800XT to it...)
Do I have extra 8pin connectors on my power supply? Yes, but not an extra 8pin cable) => I have a 2x 8pin to 1x 12pin cable
Sorry for my bad English 🫠
Hi, hmm that's a difficult one. I wouldn't personally try and use one of the 7800XT pigtails for the 570 - if the 7800XT starts drawing a lot of power, the 570 might end up getting starved of power. Ideally a new PSU is needed, but I appreciate that's not always an option. Maybe try using a single cable for your 7800XT (with the pigtail, for both connectors) and then undervolting it if needed. Even a slight undervolt might bring it within the 225W or so that one cable 'should' supply at a minimum. I feel like this approach will result in the most stability for your two GPUs. Good luck 🙂
So been using my RX 6700 xt with daisy chain for almost a year, having weird texture glitches thinking it was dying and it may just be the power supply, I will just try this thanks
Ooh interesting, fingers crossed this does help resolve it 🤞
Could you damage a 285w card running 1 pigtail on both connections?
Potentially yes. Best case you might experience some crashes etc. It does also depend on the PSU and PCIe cable quality too though - some setups might deliver 210w via the PCIe cable without much issue.
I have ordered 4080 super do I need 3 separate or will 2 cables be okay with 1 using daisy cable
2 cables should be probably be okay for the 4080 Super 🙂
@@TechOverwrite great thank so much I have ordered new PSU anyways so only for couple days until it arrives and new one has a dedicated cable from PSU straight to gpu
That makes sense, good luck with your new build 🙂
I have 2 GPUs that use 375 watts each and so I purchased a 1300 watt PSU for that purpose. It did come with a 12VHPWR cable for Nvidia GPUS and it uses 4 connections on the PSU. A bit overkill but it would be a safe route for 4080/4090 GPUs even though they would probably still melt. That 12V connector was a Seriously BAD idea as there is no way IMHO to channel 600 watts through it,..Too Much Resistance by scaling down the pin size! It's like going from 20mm to 2mm🤐.
Wow that's an impressive PSU, but it's great that you're properly powering your 2 GPUs 🙂 Agreed about the 12VHPWR connector, it's been a disappointment so far IMO.
@@TechOverwrite I originally tried to start this setup on a MB with an AMD FX9590 and an 850 watt PSU with those 2 cards an it said UH UH! So when I found this 1300 watt PSU on ebay for a little over a 100 dollars I bought it! It came in the original package and that is what it took to get this system up and running. The CPU at the time itself needed 220 watts to run. I wanted something that was Modular and I got that. I don't understand why EVGA PSU's go for so Cheap because that is all I use in my machines and I have had no issues at all with them. They do have 1600 watt units but I bought what I needed. If you figured up the wattage it needed it came to 970 watts!
thanks a lot! my psu have only 2 8 pin and one of them have a pig tail. since im using a 4080 with a tdp of 320W it should be safe and have no issues
No worries, glad this helped 🙂 Yes 2 separate cables and a pigtail should be fine for the 4080, I agree.
Thanks!
No worries, hope this helped 🙂
hey i have a xfx speedster merc 319 6950xt and have been using the pigtails without realising, the pcs not posting now but we think it’s a ram or motherboard issue we’re currently fixing. is it possible i’ve ruined the gpu by using the pigtail?
Hey, ah sorry to hear that, that's frustrating 😔 I doubt your GPU has been ruined to be honest. My understanding was that a GPU would shut down long before getting damaged beyond repair. Plus under supplying power is probably better than over supplying power, from a risk perspective. Fingers crossed that's the case anyway, and your GPU is fine once your POST issues are resolved 🙂
@@TechOverwrite yeah i thought the same but got a lil worried when i saw the pigtail stuff, thanks for the reply, hopefully it’s an easy fix!
but my msi mag a650bn only have 1 into 2x 6+2, what should i do?
Hmm I tried looking into that PSU but couldn't easily tell... is it a single PCIe cable from the PSU, which then splits into a pigtail? If so, you'll probably just have to be careful what GPU you buy - since you won't be able to power high range cards (unfortunately). But anything up to midrange, 225W ish GPUs should be fine.
Is this also true for the 2 8-pin connectors on the motherboard for the cpu?
Ooo great question, I'll look to cover this in a future video. The short answer is that for budget and mid range CPUs, only connecting up a single 8-pin connector can be sufficient. But the second connector is more of a backup, for redundancy in cases of very high CPU power draw (e.g. from a power hungry CPU that has also been overclocked).
I use my powercolor red devil 7900xtx with a pigtail cable, plus one additional independent cable , all to the power supply. Never had issues. Max power draw is 375W. 150+150(the pigtail cables and other independent cable)+75(PCIE Slot power)
In a way it can be beneficial since it caps the power consumption of your card. Though i suppose that may hinder performance, especially for overclocking purposes. I dont overclock my gpu tho.
That's good and reassuring to know, and I agree that there's no reason why two cables would be an issue here. Good points about acting as a power cap too 🙂
Are there any 850w psu that comes with three single connector pcie cables? Cheers 🤙
Check out this list: pcpartpicker.com/products/power-supply/#G=6,18&sort=price&page=1
Basically that shows any PSUs that have a decent number of PCIe and CPU slots. For example I randomly clicked on a Seasonic Prime Ultra Gold 750W PSU, and that has quite a few PCIe slots.
I have a 650w it is corsair cv650 and my other components are low powered like i5 13400f the main problem is this psu only has one 8 pin pcie cable that splits into two 6+2 pin connectors so can I daisy chain it/pigtail it? I don't ever plan to overclock?what's the maximum wattage a single 8 pin pcie cable can take?i searched the whole internet could not find a correct answer?like whats the quality of cable of this particular unit corsair cv650w is it single 8 pin pcie cable is 150w or 288w?if not can i undervolt it?
I don't know for sure, but check out this PDF:
gzhls.at/blob/ldb/4/a/f/6/b974c48eac846a02c0203a0bf81b8447717a.pdf
That seems to say that the CV650's PCIe cable is 18awg. So you're probably looking at 288w through that cable. And then 75 watts more from the motherboard PCIe slot.
So you should hopefully be fine to run any mid range GPU on that single PCIe cable, especially because Corsair make pretty solid PSUs. But just watch out for crashes and freezes, especially if you're maxing out your GPU 🙂
@@TechOverwrite thanks for replying 🙏!! Btw I am planning to pair it with rtx 4070 ti super which has a tdp of 285w is it fine or I have to undervolt?
No worries 🙂 Yes I think that should be fine in this case. 👍
By comprehensive testing, mr. BitsBeTrippin have tested different GPU PCI-E draw, 3090 went as high as 127W. With new GPU's the 75W TDP on PCI-E is no longer true even though it is still the standard.
That's interesting thanks, I remember back to the RX 480 days when a small number of GPUs were drawing more than 75W and frying parts of some motherboards. I guess things have moved on since then 🙂
I have a corsair rm850e and I need another pcie cable. can i buy any brand 8 pin cable?
Yes... and no (sorry!). A good quality third party cable from a reputable company like CableMod would be fine. But an ultra budget cable from a no-name AliExpress source would not be.
I'd personally either get a CableMod one, or another Corsair replacement. Their premium individually sleeved ones are awesome, to be honest 🙂
Few days ago the ''pigtailed'' pcie cable of my 7 year old Coolermaster V750 PSU melted inside the PSU end. Found out after I was getting constant black screens when starting any game. I had the cable connected to the 2 pcie connectors of my Zotac RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC GPU. The GPU is rated at only 220W TDP. I was running it mostly undervolted, but had the power limit in MSI Afterburner maxed out. Maybe thats why? I'm not sure. Something feels really off. But luckily my graphics card is ok, and I now have the other ''pigtailed'' pcie cable connected to the other free slot on my PSU and running the card at 50% power limit to be safe... until my new PSU arrives in 1-2 days.
Hmm that's really good (and concerning) - glad you caught the issue before anything worse potentially happened. Fingers crossed your new PSU works out fine for you 🙂
I'm gonna get the 7900xtx taichi will I have to do this or is that connector good for that one
That card? Pfft the motherboard PCIe's 75 watt supply is enough for that... 😬
Kidding, that's an awesome card - it'll definitely need multiple cables! Happy gaming.
@TechOverwrite 1 more question sorry.. I was told for my 7900xtx taichi to use 3 separate 8 pin cables for thr gpu but I look at psu on line and most of them say 6+2 pin is that the same and is one worse than the other cause I have to buy a psu either way so should I purposely buy one that strictly says 3x 8 pin pcie?
No worries at all 🙂 6+2 is fine - that just means 2 of the ends are 'split off' (for ease of plugging in if it's a 6 pin PCIe device). It's essentially the same thing here though. I power my own RX6700XT with two 6+2 PCIe cables, for example.
@TechOverwrite but would a actual 8 pin be better
@@user-bv5np9qo7k it's basically the same for this purpose, so I wouldn't worry about it. The GPU will be powered fine either with 6+2 or a direct 8 pin, it'll be 12volts with both 🙂
Dang. I have the sapphire 7900xtx, so i think i'll need to get an updated wire setup since I'm using two. Should I maybe be using 3 cables from PSU for the sapphire 7900xtx? Maybe I should get a cable set similar to what you talked about in the video?
It does depend on the PSU maker (i.e. if it's a good quality PSU with quality PCIe cables, you might be fine with 2 PCIe cables). 3 would generally be safe though yes. I quite like the Corsair individually sleeved PCIe cables, although many people use CableMod or similar and they look great and can work really well 🙂
I have an NZXT 1000w PSU@@TechOverwrite
Thank you so much man!!! Had a hard crash on my 7800xt + 5600x - Corsair Rmx 850w, with cyberpunk, lowered the graphics and ran fine for a couple hours then again I blame cyberpunk so stopped playing it, with Helldivers 2 9 minutes into gameplay and crash and restart itself then not even after launching the game same result and started happening on Apex at the time there was a Windows update that gave me error every time so I blame that and did a clean install and everything fixed (on March). Yesterday happened again, clean install did nothing, change to 2 pcie cables so far I seems good, manage to play Apex, haven't restarted itself I'll update if anything. Sorry for writing a book hope it helps someone about there too.
No worries, thanks for the detailed comment and fingers crossed this fixes the problem for you 🙂
good to know
Hey i have 750w PSU and i dont have modular PSU and it has 1 pcie cable with pigtail. So i have 3060ti wich tdp is 220. Should i be good ? (Edit i have deepcool PK750D PSU)
Hmm, yes you should just about be okay there - even if the cable guage is not the best, you're hopefully looking at 150w for the cable (min) and 75w from the motherboard slot - which is just about enough. Just try and avoid overclocking the GPU 😆
@@TechOverwrite yeah im thinking maybe i should use msi afterburner so i can limit the power? And i shouldnt then put too much load on gpu because i dont really want to risk with my gpu. Gpu is btw 3060ti asus rog strix so its one of most expensive 3060 card
@@TechOverwriteand im thinked about one thing. Is it too risky if im gonna buy 2sata to 8pin connector and using that as second power to gpu? Is it good idea or should i just stick to that 1cable that comes from psu
a lot of people don't know this.. good video buddy! i got sapphire nitro xtx, which pulls 420w or even more!!! got 3 cables from the psu, no loops here. and yes mine looks ugly with the "pigtails" hanging of, but i don't really care :D
Thanks, glad you liked it 🙂 Yep 420w for a single card is loads, but necessary considering how much power they deliver nowadays. (And sorry for critizing your 'ugly' pigtail cables lol 😆)
What brand is your psu?
I have just purchased xtx and I have evga psu but I require more pcie cables , Do you know a good safe cable brand?
@@Relaxing_Drone i got corsair 1000w, if i was you i would buy a new psu. It's never good to buy loose cables unless you are sure of their exact specs. You just need a psu with 3 of the 8 pin connectors, and if you have a old psu it might not have that.
I have 12V 2x6 slot on psu with 600w cable, can I use it directly on you?
Directly on.. to me?! Sounds painful 😜
@@TechOverwrite sorry bruh 😅 I mean directly to GPU….it was auto-correct who did that 😅 my gpu is rtx 4070 ti super
Haha no problem bro, I figured as much 😅 Ah that's a great GPU. Yes, using the 12v-2x6 cable is fine as long as you plug both ends into the PSU. That'll be perfectly safe IMO. Happy gaming 🤞
I have a rog thor 1000w psu but it came with pcie cable and vga which cables do i use i currently have the pcie ones connected do i switch the the single vga cables
They probably both work the same in this case, many PSU manufacturers (mis)label VGA when they actually just mean PCIe. Basically the idea of VGA = graphics card, so = PCIe too! Which is confusing. But you should be fine sticking to the PCIe cables you have right now 🙂
@@TechOverwrite even with a 4090
@@TechOverwrite so I should use the vga cable or just the pcie and single one too?
Ah sorry, I didn't realise you had a 4090! Sweet card 🙂 Then yes, multiple cables will be necessary - but I'm assuming that requires a 12vhpwr connector? If so, a single 12vhpwr connector into your 4090 should work if it's rated for the full 600w, and then you'll 'just' need to plug it into any and all PCIe/VGA slots on your PSU. In this case you will probably need multiple connectors plugged into the PSU, but double check your ROG Thor manual incase it handles 12vhpwr differently.
@TechOverwrite my 4090 came with an adapter with a 3 8 pins connection is that fine connecting with 3 separate pcie cables
the main prooblem is not the wire but the connector. also the PSU side connection is not standard, so if you buy new cables you need to check the pins!
Fair point - thank you. And yes, it's definitely always good to check the pins, true 🙂
Why do these come as standard in so many psu if they dont want us to use them, whats the point
In general it's not a bad thing to split load across cables/ends. And remember that PSU makers don't specifically make their units and cables for GPUs, and vice versa. In other words, someone might have a build with various lower powered PCIe devices - and the split cable here would be quite useful.
2:07 But cables have melted🔥 with those New Nividia Connectors LoL
Ugh yes true, I should have mentioned that "normal" PCIe cables with "normal" ends don't tend to melt 🙈
I've wondered why the PSU manufacturers tell you to only use the cables that came with the PSU. I think this is recommended because the cables that came with the PSU can handle a higher wattage.
Hmm that's a good theory, you could well be right - at least they then have that control of exactly what the cables and output will be.
@@TechOverwrite Thanks for your reply. This morning, I visited the ANTEC website for white replacement cables for my 1000-watt PSU. I found the wires and a notice stating that the white cables were only extension cables and that they were not intended to replace the cables that came with their PSU. I saw that the extension cables were made with AWG 16-gauge wires. I will check the PSU pins to see if they match the standard PSU output and cable connectors.
I'll remember to thank you tomorrow if my rx 5700 xt works tomorrow..i just got a full modular power supply after i saw your video because apparently my Rx 5700 xt thicc iii used 2x 8 pins and when i plug it in it displays for a few seconds and stops displaying..before i bought the second hand thing it was okay where i got it soo i m here thing maybe the supply of power isn't enough because even if the tested psu was 700w the 8 pins where in that fashion..tho am still uncertain of my assessment is correct
Hmm that's interesting, I hope that you can get it resolved. Unfortunately it could be anything from lack of PSU power to a motherboard issue, or even a driver issue. Hopefully the PSU PCIe cables fixes it though? 🙂
Great video, hate the fact I have a 700w psu but with one cable only lmao, that should be ilegal.
Thanks 🙂 And yes that sucks, it's weird how you can sometimes get 600W PSUs with two PCIe slots then your case with more power and less slots 😞
I have a 7800xt with a RM750E Corsair 2023 PSU. Is it ok to use pigtails?
Hmm, tricky one. That's quite a power hungry card. I wouldn't personally try with just 1 cable, however since you have a good quality Corsair PSU, it 'should' be okay. Just be sure to watch out for crashes, lock-ups etc.
I have tried with a bitfenix 750w formula gold, rated A tier psu using the pigtail cable, easy to say system crashed once the amd spiked to 320 watts. DO NOT USE PIGTAIL, JUST DONT.
i HAVE THE SAME CARD WITH THE PIGTAIL, WORKS FINE. G.Skill 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX Fully Modular Power Supply... I THINK THIS VIDEO IS INFORMATIVE BUT DOESNT APPLY TO EVERYONE.
What if my power supply doesnt have any sockets only built in cables? Can a converter do the same job?
Good question, I should have covered non-modular PSUs in this video but basically you're limited by the number of PCIe cables and adapters/converters etc won't help unfortunately. So if your PSU only has one PCIe cable, you probably won't be able to go above 225W for a GPU (for example) 🙂
@@TechOverwrite In a video l saw a guy using 2 molex pins and convert them into 1 8 pin connector with an extra converter cable and it seems to be working. So l taught maybe l can do this too and it would function as a second PCIe cable. I have Msi GTX 4070 Super ventus 2x and l am having problems with it, at random the secrens turn black and fans of the GPU go full speed even tho the temps are 30 something. When l disconnect and reconnect the PCIe cables this problem goes away for week but then returns. So l taught maybe it is because my GPU is connected with one pigtail PCIe cable and on the instructions of the GPU they reccomend 2 of them.
Hmm that's really odd, unfortunately I'm not sure why it's okay for a week or so and then failing again. I'll keep an eye out and reply back if I hear of anything relevant to what you're experiencing 🙁
@@TechOverwrite Thank you, and do you think it would be okay to convert the two molex pins into a 8 pin PCIe cable so l can plug two PCIe to my GPU?
I'm not sure to be honest (sorry!). I think for lower power GPUs it can be 'fine' to add some power via Molex adaptor, and back in the day some 1070 Tis (IIRC) had a Molex adaptor bundled with them. But I'm personally wouldn't power a 4070 Super with a PCIe + Molex. It might work, but I wouldn't chance it - sorry.
I had to order one off of Amazon that’s rated compatible for my psu I’m a bit on the fence about this considering the card I will be using it on is a 7900 gre it says it only needs two 8pins so here’s hoping that this cable doesn’t melt
That's a 260W TDP card, so that should be fine IMO 🤞 That's a great card, I hope it works out well for you.
@@TechOverwrite thanks like I said just nervous because it’s not the exact cord that came with the psu i managed to misplace the box somewhere that had the extras and nowhere sells the replacement bundle that I’ve seen so I’m taking a risk here ordering one on Amazon
@@synrsystems1363 yeah I totally understand your concern, especially since Amazon can be hit and miss. As long as it's a reasonably reliable brand and/or has good enough reviews, you'd hope it would be fine. I'd feel more comfortable with a third party 8 pin PCIe cable than a third party 12vhpwr connector, at least 🤞
@@TechOverwrite I have no idea even what that is 😆 I just know the pcie so if you could make a video stating the difference plus dos and don’t I would definitely love that ! Also yeah I’m very concerned seeing as the one cord is from the original psu and this one is just third party but the reviews seem to do it justice ill find out Wednesday when the gpu arrives then I can pull out my 5700xt which I’ve been running on pigtails just fine with minimal crashes 😆
Haha fair point 😄 I do actually plan to do 1-2 videos soon covering these points - basically the way that graphics cards are powered has changed a bit recently (mainly for NVIDIA cards though). 🙂 Yep fingers crossed it works out fine when you receive that - I think that it'll be fine 🤞
Well i buy 4070 and conection IS 1x 16 pin ... Then can i connect 2x separate 8 pin conector ?
Or i need some new cable? I dont know how to connect
You can buy 2x PCIe (8 pin) to 12vhpwr (12 pin) adaptors yes, and these can be perfectly safe, although some GPUs come with these included. So I'd say double check what your PSU and/or GPU includes first.
@@TechOverwrite i have ASUS ROG STRIX 1000 W GOLD then i need some reduction on only 2x 8pin connector
@theblackshadow112 yes that sounds like it'd be fine then (assuming it's a fairly reputable adapter, from CableMod or similar - and not AliExpress lol!)
So my gpu is 225w and I have a 600w power supply I'm running it pigtail. So am I good😅
Btw it's a thermaltake psu
That hopefully sounds like it'll be okay 🙂
well actually the pigtail doesn't work like that. a daisychained pci-e cable can deliver around 280~ watt of power. so while it's still less than 300 its not capped at 150 so most of the time there is nothing to worry about. this is because there is more voltage and ground through the pigtail so its almost doubles the amps.
Thanks for the added info. 🙂 I couldn't find any extra details to back this up (that the pigtail does supply that much extra power) when doing the video originally, but am happy to be wrong.
Does this mean it’s perfectly fine to use a pigtail connector instead of another cable?
All of the people that want you to purchase something from them are going to say to use separate. If you look at the molex standards (which is like the IEEE for PC cabling standards) then it's engineering to handle up to 252 watts. I really like your explanation of this, that yes it is possible and it's actually ok most of the time. However, if you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside (that's not related to your GPU bursting into flames) then just use 1 to 1 ratios on your cables and you'll be good!
What I wouldn't recommend doing is plugging a pig tail into a card that wants 300 watts. Remember just like with CAT cable the "standard" is the absolutel bare minimum for the cable to pass inspection. So you are guaranteed 252 watts based on Molex speccing. Specifically it's 3 power pins at 7 amps per.
Remember don't go off manufacturers who are selling you something, go off the folks that actually engineer the standards. Also schematic diagrams are a Godsend if you can read them as they aren't written by marketing or legal.
Thanks for the detailed comment, and I agree entirely that refering to schematics not marketing is ideal - where they are obtainable (true!). 🙂
help me i cant get signal from my gpu 4080s i have evga 1000w g6, its been 5 days i didnt use ny new pc 😭😭😭
Ugh sorry to hear that. Do you have any spare parts or monitors to do some tests on? As in, try plugging your PC into a different monitor. Or use HDMI instead of DisplayPort cables. Basically try testing out as many changes as you can to try and diagnose what the issue might be.
@@TechOverwrite i solved it, it was the cables, i inserted the split cable into psu and the solid one into gpu, i got no signal, it was supposed
to be the other way around, now it works. thnx😊
Can't you just switch ends from your pcie cables, so that the ugly pig tails are all hidden at the psu instead of in sight at the gpu?
@@rikb4071 hmm good question, it might depend purely on the PSU. I don't think it's physically possible with my Corsair PSUs for example, but I'll try and check sometimes soon.
@@TechOverwrite the manufacturer always displays the pigtail at the GPU side, but why..
glad i seem to have done it right not using the that weird thing, i just used zip ties to keep them from dangling all over the place
Zip tying the split ends out the way makes sense for sure 🙂
I’ve actually had so many problems out of my 7900xtx nitro, now it makes sense. Maybe 1000w isn’t enough😂
Yikes, but yes, that's a powerful... and power hungry 😆... GPU. Hopefully you can get it to settle down and run smoothly 🙂
i have been experiencing some crashes with my new RX 7700 XT.. I been using one cable....
Ooo interesting, fingers crossed the crashes stop after moving to two cables then 🤞
My modular psu has 1 gpu pcie and 3 cpu pcie my gpu has 3x8 pins idk what to do
Are they definitely labelled as GPU and CPU (separately)? Usually the labels are close together and confusing, but 2 will be for the GPU and 2 for the CPU in this case. That's what my Corsair RX PSU does. I then run 1x CPU cable and 2x GPU cables, and it works okay.
@@TechOverwrite I have the tuf 850 gold from what I can tell there 1 named gpu but that's the 12vhp 600watt thing and what i thought are cpu pcie but i thing vga cables go there my main confusion was the vga cables idk i built computers before but the new power standerds scary
Ah right, ugh yes that's a pain. I'm in a similar boat actually - all my old builds have standard 6 or 8 pin PCIe connectors so I haven't had any experience (yet) with the 12vph connector sorry.
will 2 pcie cables fix coil whine?
It can do yes, I know of a few people who fixed coil whine after reviewing their PCIe cables. 🤞
even for the 6700xt sapphire pulse ? worth to try ? because i can’t undervolt too much and does not help with the noise
Thicker cables can carry more AMPS not Volts. You can use thin cables for high voltage.
Thanks for clarifying my sloppy wording/explanation there 🙂 That distinction is important to remember.