I'm planning to upgrade to a Gigabyte B850 GAMING X WIFI6E ATX AM5 motherboard, but the compatibility checker warns that the board has an additional 4-pin CPU power connector while my EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GM 650W 80+ Gold fully modular SFX power supply doesn't have a spare connector for it. The warning says the system will probably work without the extra connection, though it could matter under higher current demands. Will this PSU be sufficient for gaming, or should I replace it?
3 Answers
The extra 4-pin can safely be left disconnected if your power supply doesn’t provide one. An 8-pin EPS connector is officially rated for well over the power that a high-end AM5 processor would normally draw, including a 9950X3D. It may provide additional power delivery headroom in unusually demanding or heavily overclocked situations, but it isn’t required for a normal gaming build.
You should be fine. The additional 4-pin connector is mainly useful for extreme power demands or overclocking. A single 8-pin EPS CPU connector can supply plenty of power, and current Ryzen processors supported by this platform should remain within that limit at stock settings. For example, even a Ryzen 9 9950X3D has a stock power limit around 200W.
It depends somewhat on the processor and whether you plan to raise power limits, but for a standard setup the motherboard and PSU are still compatible without that extra connector. If you already have the 650W unit, there’s no need to replace it just because of this warning. Make sure the PSU also has enough capacity and the correct connectors for your graphics card.
Thanks, that clears it up.