Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > [Solved] No 8-pin pci-e on my power supply... should I use 6 pin or 2 molex?

[Solved] No 8-pin pci-e on my power supply... should I use 6 pin or 2 molex?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - [Solved] No 8-pin pci-e on my power supply... should I use 6 pin or 2 molex?

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Best answer from coozie7.

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Hey guys, I've got an old p4 agp system, I just got the sapphire hd 3850. Right now I'm using the two molex to 8-pin pci-e adapter. I've had a couple voltage drops on the 12v rail, but I'm not 100% sure if it was caused by the card.

Anyway, I'm wondering what y'all think would be more stable. I've read that I can plug the 6-pin pci-e into the 8-pin connecter and still use the card. Would that be more stable under heavy graphics load thatn the 2 molex? Would using a 6 to 8 pin adapter be significantly more stable than the other two options?

Use the PCI-E 6-8 converter, the molex plugs are not really intended to drive high power devices and some PSU's restrict the power they send to such lines anyway.
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What PSU do you have?

------------------------------ Asus P6T deluxe
i7 965 @ 4.2GHz (200*21), 1.384V
12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 CAS 7
Reply to cjl

Antec TP3-550, it has two pci-e 6-pins.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371002

There are posts on the forum with people saying the have used a 6 pin connector with no issues. Others have used 2 molex and had no problems. I'm just curious as to which would theoretically be more stable in an 8-pin gpu.

Edit: And when I said voltage drops, I don't mean I had a system crash, just that I got a warning from my monitoring software.


Message edited by Enhanced_Interrogator on 11-11-2009 at 09:37:23 PM
Reply to Enhanced_Interrogator

wait what? you have a agp 3850 that has 8pin pcie power connector..... 0_o

Reply to Kari

yep

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102730

It's a monster card that is getting bottlenecked by my CPU and the AGP bus, but it's a pretty good deal at $88. This card lets me play new games like FEAR 2 at max detail settings (I usually have to hold back on AA). I figure this thing will keep me afloat for a couple years to play most of the games I'm interested in (minus SupCom 2), and I'll build a nasty new system from the ground up then.

Reply to Enhanced_Interrogator
Best answer

Use the PCI-E 6-8 converter, the molex plugs are not really intended to drive high power devices and some PSU's restrict the power they send to such lines anyway.

Reply to coozie7

Thanks coozie. So what are the advantages of using the 6-8 adapter versus just plugging the 6-pin straight in (which is possible with this card)? Will the adapter allow more voltage to pass through the line? Just curious because they didn't include a 6-8 adapter, so I'd have to buy one.


Message edited by Enhanced_Interrogator on 11-11-2009 at 09:49:08 PM
Reply to Enhanced_Interrogator


that's sick, all the agp cards I've had only had 4pin molex for extra power. lol guess that card really needs the extra juice

Reply to Kari

@ Enhanced_Interrogat: Must be the effects off too much overtime, I misread your post. AFAK it'll be OK to us the 6 pin directly, the extra two pins are returns, not live voltages.

Reply to coozie7
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > [Solved] No 8-pin pci-e on my power supply... should I use 6 pin or 2 molex?
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