Upgrading 970 to 1070

[Oggis]

Hey. So i just bought a new graphics card and i'm at a dead end. My old card was a gtx 970 and it used 2 6pin connectors (5 yellow wires) and i just got a 1070 which has a single 8pin connection. I was reading a bit and i'm not sure if i should use a 2x 6pin to 1x 8pin adapter or just get a new PSU.

My specs at the moment are:

PSU - Thermaltake TR2 Challenger 500w
Motherboard - Asus Z170-P
PCU - i7 6700
RAM - 2x Kingston HyperX Fury 8gb 2,4GHz
Current GPU - MSI GTX970 4Gb

 

[billbennett]

I've found out this info for you from another site. It was posted in 2010 so if your psu is newer it may have the 3 wires mentioned below.

Hopefully me replying may get some help from someone else

"The 6-pin PCI-E power connector specification includes two 12V wires and three ground wires and has a rated maximum power output of 75W. The 8-pin includes three 12V wires and 5 ground wires and has a rated power output of 150W. source

Because the 6-pin specification only specifies two 12V wires are required, you might not be able to provide enough power. However, some power supply designs actually include the third 12V wire in the 6-pin connector anyways. In that case, there isn't much difference between the 6-pin and 8-pin, other than the two additional ground wires."

You should check out the manual for your graphics card to see if you can just use the 6-pin, though I'm not sure if any graphics cards allow that.

 

[Oggis]

Basically posted similar threads on other sites as well, and the conclusion is that i gotta get a new PSU which has 6+2(8pin) PCI-E conections. My one was trash to be fair and i guess it's better to be safe than sorry. My cable management won't be happy though.

 

[billbennett]

New psu is always a good idea when investing in a high end GPU.

Hope you enjoy it when its up and running.

 

[AiiR]

Never use adaptors with graphics cards, I've learnt this the very hard way and killed an entire system using one (weirdly enough, everything except the 2 cards).

 

[Marine-RX179]

Never use adaptors with graphics cards, I've learnt this the very hard way and killed an entire system using one (weirdly enough, everything except the 2 cards).

Not disagreeing with you, but if you know the particular PSU is from a reputable manufacturer, looked at the 12v output rating on the label (and checked review/testing of them to see it's max output over the 12v stably) and calculate how much power you use on the 12v rail for the rest of the system, then using an adapter not an issue.

 

[Wingz]

Yes it depends on the manufacturer. I'm still using my 8 year old Seasonic 600w m12 psu (48A 2v rail) to power my Msi GTX 1080 sea hawk ek with a 6pin to 8pin adapter. Been almost 4 months now without problems, touch wood