Can I safely run a 3080 Ti and 3060 with two power supplies?
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MellowOrbit47
I'm currently running an undervolted RTX 3080 Ti with an i5-14600KF and 32GB of DDR4 memory from a Seasonic 850W 80+ Gold PSU. I also have a spare RTX 3060 12GB and a Hyper Pro 700W 80+ PSU of uncertain quality. A power calculator estimates that using both GPUs could require roughly 916W. I'd like to use the 3080 Ti for gaming and the 3060 for frame-generation or neural-rendering features, possibly with a heavily modded Skyrim setup. Could I power the second GPU from the spare PSU while keeping it installed in the same motherboard, and what would be the safest way to do this?
Answers
I would not trust the unidentified Hyper Pro unit with an expensive graphics card. The Seasonic 850W is the better-quality supply, but running both cards from it may leave too little headroom for transient spikes. The practical solution is replacing the current setup with a reputable 1000W or higher PSU, rather than using the questionable 700W unit.
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Technically, two PSUs can power one system, but they need to start and shut down together. You’d need a proper dual-PSU synchronizer, and the GPU powered by the secondary supply still gets slot power from the motherboard’s primary PSU. Mixing supplies this way adds wiring and failure points, so it isn’t a simple plug-and-play upgrade.
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A second GPU is more useful for separate workloads such as encoding, compute, or experimentation than for directly improving gaming performance. If the mod explicitly supports assigning neural rendering or frame-generation work to another GPU, check its documentation first; otherwise, the extra card may add power draw and complexity without improving frame rates.
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The 3080 Ti should already be capable of handling frame generation on its own, and a second GPU usually won’t provide the kind of seamless performance boost you’re expecting. Multi-GPU support for gaming and frame-generation workloads depends heavily on the specific software, and many applications simply won’t use the second card effectively.
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Also, the memory figure should be 32GB rather than 35GB unless there’s an unusual mixed-capacity configuration. That won’t determine whether the dual-GPU setup works, but matched memory modules and a stable single-GPU configuration are preferable before adding another major source of power and driver complexity.
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MellowOrbit47: I was mainly considering it for the DLSS 5-style neural-rendering features in the RenoXD mod, which reportedly now works with 30-series cards. I’m not trying to use traditional SLI.