I'm a beginner gearing up to upgrade my PC with a new graphics card. Right now, I'm moving from an RTX 2080 to an RTX 5070, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to power it. My power supply is a 750W Corsair RM750, and I noticed that the 2080 is currently connected using a single PCIe cable that has a daisy chaining setup, giving me 2 x 6+2 connections for the GPU. I'm a bit confused about how to connect the new card because it has a different 12-pin layout, and I read mixed opinions about using the daisy chain. My goal is to connect everything smoothly without causing any power issues, especially since I didn't build this rig and will have to work around some heavy cable management. What risks should I consider if I continue using this single PCIe cable?
3 Answers
Each output of your power supply can deliver up to 288 watts with a single cable, and while the connectors are designed to handle no more than 150 watts each, using a pigtail can effectively take advantage of that max power. Your RTX 5070 should be fine on a single PCIe cable, but if you ever upgrade to a GPU that demands more than 288 watts, you might face performance issues or crashes due to inadequate power. Just be aware of that for the future!
While daisy chaining isn't typically recommended, the RTX 5070 isn't extremely power-hungry, so it should be manageable. Just keep monitoring your system's performance and temperatures, and you should be good to go!
Running off a single PCIe cable does increase the load on that connector, which isn't ideal since you want to distribute the power evenly across cables. Your PSU is a solid one, so while it might not be perfect to daisy chain, it shouldn't cause immediate problems, especially with your current GPU. Just keep an eye on performance, and if you notice any issues, that might be the time to make a change.
Got it! So the worst-case scenario is just a drop in graphics performance? That's what I wasn't sure about.
Thanks for clearing that up! So for now, I should be good with the 5070, but I'll need to plan for a better power setup if I get something more demanding later on.