Want to upgrade GPU but unsure about my PSU

Samhfx

Samhfx

Samhfx

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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 said:
Apparently you can buy adapters but that doesn't sound safe at all, right?
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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.

Samhfx said:
Also how much of a performance loss would it be to put a 5070 Ti into a PCIe 4.0 motherboard?
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No worries.
 
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Tetras said:
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.
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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 said:
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.
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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.
 
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Tetras said:
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.
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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
 
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Samhfx said:
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?
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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.

Samhfx said:
So the safest way to power the GPU is with an adapter corsair sells rather than what comes with the GPU right?
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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.
 
Tetras said:
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.
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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 said:
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.
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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.
 
Tetras said:
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.
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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.
 
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Samhfx said:
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.
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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.

Samhfx said:
Also I thought mix and matching PSU cables can be dangerous, that also scares me. So buying an adapter just doesn't feel right.
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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.
 
Tetras said:
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.
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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."
 
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Just use the adaptor that comes with the card. It will take two of your 8 pin pci-e cables from your psu but make sure they are from seperate cables and not two daisy chained connectors from the same psu cable.
 
3070 fe uses a 2 8 pin to 12 pin adapter, i recently pulled mine out and replaced it with a 9070xt also have a similar vintage of corsair psu tx750m it came with two 8 pin cables each had a pig tail.
 
Samhfx said:
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?
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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.
 
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