I'm in a bit of a bind here. My power supply is an MSI 850W 80+ Gold, but it only came with a single 2x6+2 PCIe cable. Finding additional PCIe cables locally has proven impossible, and online shipping fees are through the roof at around $100. Since I'm gaming at 1080p and I suspect my i5-13400f will bottleneck the Sapphire RX 9070 XT anyway, is it safe to daisy chain my power supply for now? I know the GPU only requires 2x8 pins, and I'm okay with some performance loss for the time being as I'm planning to upgrade to a full AMD setup and possibly a new PSU in the future.
5 Answers
Using a daisy chain isn't ideal, but you should be fine. It won't cause major issues for periodic use, especially since you're okay with potential performance drops. It's definitely not worth splurging on a new PSU for just this situation.
Daisy chaining should be perfectly fine for your card as they're rated for full power supply. Just make sure everything is plugged in securely, and you should be good to go!
Out of curiosity, what kind of 850W PSU only comes with one PCIe cable? My MSI 850W came with two, and I've been using those with my 9070 XT.
I personally advise against daisy chaining if possible. It's not the best practice and could lead to issues down the line.
For better performance, make sure to connect the single PCIe cable directly to the left side of the GPU, which is the primary power input. The daisy chain can go on the right side. This setup roughly combines for a total of 375W, with 300W from the GPU and 75W from the PCIe slot, which should adequately power your card.
Yeah, buying a whole new PSU just for one cable doesn't make much sense. I'm in the same boat; my old PSU costs over $200 locally too. I'm just hoping my setup won't catch fire with the daisy chain if it isn’t drawing too much power.