Want to upgrade GPU but unsure about my PSU

[Samhfx]

I want to upgrade my GPU from a 3070 FE to perhaps a 5070 Ti. I currently have the RMx Series™ RM750x — 750 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified Fully Modular PSU. I'm unsure how old it is but I built the PC around 4-5 years ago. When looking on Google apparently I need an adapter because the PSU I have doesn't have the correct connector or something. Basically my question is do I have to upgrade my PSU if I was to upgrade my GPU? Apparently you can buy adapters but that doesn't sound safe at all, right?

Also how much of a performance loss would it be to put a 5070 Ti into a PCIe 4.0 motherboard? It's crazy, I only wanted to upgrade my GPU but then a chain of potential problems have raised out of nowhere. I do have anxiety maybe I'm just looking at the worst in things but I really can't afford to upgrade everything. I just want to get myself prepared for BF6 when it comes out. During the play test I was unhappy with the frames I was getting.

5800x
MSI Tomahawk x570
32GB
3070 FE
RM750x

 

[Samhfx]

It is fine, you get one in the box of the card. So far as safe? Well, that's a dodgy one to get into. You could just buy a 9070 XT instead, then (if you get the right one), no 16 pin to worry about since it uses the old 8 pin connectors.


No worries.

Oh maybe I misunderstood, I thought the PSU didn't have the correct connector or something and I needed like an adapter to make like a daisy chain thing (i'm clueless). I should have grabbed the 5070 Ti in the store it was on sale I think a few days ago. I'll hold on a little longer because I never owned AMD GPU and it would feel weird to switch to one now.

 

[Samhfx]

Doesn't the 3070 FE already use a 12 pin? How did you connect that?

Corsair sell a cable you can connect to your PSU to make a 16 pin for the latest nvidia cards, without using the card's box adapter. This uses 2 of your PSU's PCIE modular ports, to make 1x 16 pin.

The card's box adapter uses 2 or 3x 8-pins to make 1x 16 pin, which is why it is messier than using the cable Corsair sell.

The new cable is known as 12vHPWR, that's what the 40 series used.

The 30 series had an early nvidia-only version, on nvidia branded cards.

The updated cable (replaces 12vHPWR) is known as 12v2x6. 12vHPWR and 12v2x6 are pin compatible. The early nvidia connector, I'm not sure.

About the 3070 FE I honestly don't remember what I used. I will open up the case and check tomorrow.

So the safest way to power the GPU is with an adapter corsair sells rather than what comes with the GPU right? Are you able to link me what I'm suppose to purchase. Does overclockers sell it?

I'm pretty dumb when it comes to all this but after doing a lot of reading I saw people were doing things they shouldn't. Like using a single cable instead of splitting them etc.

edit: is it this? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...e-4-psu-power-cable-cp-8920284-ca-272-cs.html

 

[Samhfx]

Corsair cables hurt my brains. From what I can understand, your PSU is most likely type 4 (uses type 4 cables, to be more specific), which you can check on Corsair's cable compatibility chart. If so, you must make sure that the cable you buy is type 4.

I believe type 5 is only for the newer PSUs, like the SHIFT.

From what I can gather, OCUK sell the older 12vHPWR cable. Corsair also do an updated 12v2x6, however there are multiple versions/styles of this cable and it needs a bit of figuring out.


I wouldn't like to guess. I can however, confidently say I'd rather have a card that uses 8-pins than the 16-pin.

I'm trying to make sense of all this but to be on the safe side should I just purchase a new PSU altogether? It's the first PC I've built and having to replace the PSU scares me so I did want to avoid that.

 

[Samhfx]

Noooo, it just takes a bit of extra research to find out what cable to use. I mean, a lot of people just use the box adapters (from the card) and they're doing perfectly fine, so you could just do that and not worry about it.

That's the thing you say not worry. I've been reading whilst waiting for replies for this thread. For safe practice it says I need separate cables rather than using the adapter or something. I'm very poor so if I was to blow up the 5070 Ti before even using it I would be sad.

Also I thought mix and matching PSU cables can be dangerous, that also scares me. So buying an adapter just doesn't feel right.

 

[Samhfx]

I'm not sure if you're reading the right threads? The part about using separate cables, usually relates to the number of 8-pin cables you connect to an adapter. There is no widespread issue (that I'm aware of, at least) with using the box adapter supplied with the cards. A lot of people do it. The main downside is that this is very messy, because you run the 8-pin cables from your PSU and then into the adapter, which plugs into the card.

The cables that the likes of Corsair supply (specifically intended for your PSU) just get rid of the cable clutter, I don't think they're safer, as such, since the problems almost entirely occur on the 16 pin plugged into the card itself.


There's two things here, right?

Adapters, like..., the third party 90 degree adapters that came out when the cards were new, these were not good, a lot of those cards ended up in repair shops.

If you buy a cable specifically intended for your PSU, from Corsair, that's different. There's no mix and match there. For a time, Corsair just bundled their older PSUs with these cables, until they updated them. You just have to make sure you buy the right one.

Yeah maybe I need to try and understand the situation more. I thought the adapter would make it a daisy chain and a daisy chain for GPU is considered bad afaik. Or am I still misunderstanding? The best way to do it would be to go straight from PSU directly to the PSU right?

"It's not recommended to use a basic adapter to connect your RTX 5070 Ti to an older PSU due to the risk of overheating and melting the adapter and cables, which can cause damage and fire hazards."

 

[Samhfx]

No. That entirely depends on the config that you use to plug the 8-pin connectors/cables into the 16-pin adapter. You can use separate cables for each 8-pin, if your PSU has enough of them.

Looking on Corsair compatibility chart, that is the cable you need.

You could just use the adaptor cable that comes with the GPU, but i would get the cable you linked.

So let me confirm, I can use x3 8 pin cables to connect to the 5070 ti adapter which comes with the gpu?

why would i need the adapter which is linked above, it's more efficient?

sorry i'm very dumb and just want the best possible outcome. i appreciate the help

 

[Samhfx]

1. Yes.

2. You mean the Corsair cable?

Yes, because it entirely avoids the use of the 8-pin cables (because the cable goes straight from your PSU's modular panel into the graphics card). Though, I'd use the word tidier rather than efficient.

I will check my PSU box tomorrow and see if I have x3 separate cables. does it matter if they are the pigtail ones? as long as i use 3 separately should be good? not really concerned about how bad it looks, just myself who looks at my pc lol.

about the corsair adapter linked above, is the stuff i'm reading about using a singular cable wrong? doesn't it overheat thats why x3 cables is better? forgive me if im repeating myself, i'm just scared i'm gonna do the wrong option and blow something up if i ever buy the new gpu

 

[Samhfx]

No, it doesn't matter how many connectors they have on the cable, but the advice is to use 1 cable for each position on the adapter, rather than plug in 2 connectors from 1 cable.


I still think you're confusing something else about the singular cable, that's not what this is.

The Corsair cable is not really an adapter at all, it is more like a cable that would have been bundled with your PSU when brand new.

In terms of, is using the Corsair cable better than the adapter with 3x 8-pin, well, the weak point with these cards has always been the 16 pin connector where it mates with the graphics card. This weakness is present regardless of which option you choose.

If the Corsair cable is more generally safer than the 3x 8-pin adapter, I don't know, I don't have statistics on their failure rates and I can't recall anything anecdotal.

Ok thank you. I think the corsair cable which I linked above confused me a little. I was always told to use separate cables when plugging into a GPU. Seeing the corsair cable as 1 cable confused me and thought it was potentially bad due to having risks.

I appreciate the help but it seems as though I've got myself into a complete mess. After looking at the asus 5070 ti for a long time now I just noticed I could get a 5080, specifically the palit or gainward version for the same price. Now I have a hard decision to make lol. I always stayed away from palit gpus but looking at reviews they don't seem bad at all. Why would I not buy the 5080 over the 5070 ti if the price is almost identical. I believe the 5080 requires 850w so a new psu is required for sure, solves that problem too.

 

[Samhfx]

The 16 pin connector has been designed that way. I believe that was part of the point of it, to minimise the number of 8-pin connectors and save PCB space.

Is it a good idea? Anybody who read the tech news about these things would say nope. However, like I said, using the box adapter doesn't change anything in this respect, because you still have the same single cable run to the graphics card's 16 pin connector.


The Asus cards (especially premium models) tend to be way overpriced, so that's not surprising.

Do keep in mind the warranty situation, there's a recent post from Gibbo here.

Do you have any experience with palit and gainward gpu? Growing up I saw them but I thought since they are cheaper they will die faster etc. So paying extra will be beneficial when buying the asus.

 

[Samhfx]

Nothing recent, no. I would suggest looking at the owner threads here on the forum. You can often find more detailed video reviews/teardowns on the components used in reviews on YouTube.

Yeah I'll do that thanks.

 

[Samhfx]

I linked the main threads I could find in my edit, if you didn't see it.

Yeah I see it. Actually did some more research and completely forgot about potential bottlenecks. The 5080 might not be possible because I have a 5800x. I don't have the money to replace my motherboard to buy one of those decent CPUs. I know there is 7 5800X3D or something similar which is good for AM4 mobo but I can't justify spending all this money. God why does gaming hobby suck this much, I need to win the lottery.

 

[Samhfx]

If you're determined to go nvidia, I'd personally be waiting until the Super versions are out, rather than dumping a huge amount of money on a 5070 Ti or 5080 right now.

The bottleneck would depend a lot of things (games, res, settings), but a 5080 is a pretty fast card for a 5800X, yes.

-snip-

Well ideally the only game I have in mind currently and the whole idea of wanting to upgrade is because of Battlefield 6. The performance during the playtest was awful. I say awful to a normal gamer 85-110 fps is considered good. I want to get higher frames for the 165hz monitor.

I was just watching this video, does a CPU really increase FPS by that much? I have the 5800x right and with the other CPU he's getting extra 20 fps.

I heard about possible super coming out but that could be for a long time right and prices are gonna be insane anyway.

edit: oh i should note, i usually like to play on low settings in games to get more fps. but i think that actually increases bottleneck if I remember correctly, I only learned about that a while ago.

 

[Samhfx]

A CPU in a bottleneck scenario can do more than 20 fps, a lot more. Very situational though, like I said before, depends entirely on the game, resolution and settings. If you had a 5090 and compared a 12100F to a 9800X3D, the difference could be enormous, like 100+ fps.


I see. Well, I never played the game, so without some kind of performance review (which sites like TPU often do for big new games) I really have no idea where the most likely bottleneck is, but you can check that (to some degree) with afterburner.

Every game is different, some are more CPU than others.

Since this is a fairly new game, my guess would be you'd need to be playing at a low resolution (and with low settings) for the 3070 to no longer be a bottleneck. I must say too, AMD usually have a lower driver overhead, so it is possible you'd get both more FPS and save a bunch of money with a 9070 XT (bonus points: no 16-pin connector).

Yeah just unsure what to do right now. Makes me sad because I want to upgrade CPU now too. I've never had a AMD GPU and something tells me I don't want to start either, unsure why. I said the same thing about AMD CPU after having Intel for many years but ended up with 5800x. I just want to play BF6 with smooth FPS which can match my 165hz monitor. I thought the 5070 ti would do that for me but I think CPU could be the issue now.

Thanks for the help

 

[Samhfx]

Just get a cheaper 5070 ti. This will be more of a match for your 5800X and you will not have to get a new PSU. Use the money saved to get a 5700X3D if you feel the need.

As for the cable. The Corsair one is so much neater than the GPU supplied adaptor, plus it will remove the need to use 3 separate pigtailed cables from the PSU. (all that weight on that 16 pin connector can't be good)

EDIT

Just seen the Super cards may be available October or November, so not to long to wait.

So there is no major downsides than to use the 3 separate pigtailed compared and the singular corsair one?

Reading online apparently I'm suppose to place a PSU if it's 3-4 years old especially when buying a higher end GPU. Also I'm still kind of sceptical about these cheaper GPUs. I obviously want my GPU to last as long as possible so paying that extra would kind of ensure that right? I know everything can be random but if parts are cheaper for the cheaper GPU might be worse off in the long run?

 

[Samhfx]

Think your PSU only has 2 separate cables any way so you would have to either buy another or use pigtail (not recommended) or buy the Corsair 16 pin cable.


The recommended PSU is 750w for a 5070 ti and you have a decent one with a 10 year warranty, they even produced the 16 pin cable so you can carry on using it for newer GPU's. The only reason you should get a new PSU is if you get a 5080 or 5090. (yours may even be enough for a 5080)

It has been a long time since i owned a Asus or Palit GPU, but both was well built with very good coolers. I would not pay over the odds for a Asus now though.

Out of interest, what GPU's are you considering?


This sounds more like a sales tactic.

I was considering the asus 5070 ti. but then i was looking at the 5080 like palit version since the prices are similar. i've been watching videos and stuff it they recommend to stay away from using the corsair adapter you can buy for older psu. instead the best way to do it is to use the cables directly from psu to gpu which obviously requires a new psu.

i was watching this video, kind of helped me a little to understand (if it's all true)

 

[Samhfx]

The cable you linked to is not a adaptor, it does plug directly into the PSU.
It just uses 2 x 8 pin for the PSU side instead of a 16 pin connector.

Yeah that is why I got confused. I always had in my head I need seperate cables from psu to gpu. seeing the cable as one unit put me off thinking it's unsafe practice.