Hey fellas!
I'm thinking about buying an RTX 3060 TI as a future upgrade for my PC.
My PC Build is the most common budget/mid-range build from a few years back:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (With Asus PRIME B350M-E)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (Gigabyte WindForce 2x OC)
2x8GB 3200 HyperX DDR4 RAM CL 18 (shame its 18, I know)
Corsair VS650 ( 80 Plus White PSU rated 650W )
I've done some research and discovered the following:
Quadruple than what my 1080p 120hz gaming will require if I decide to game on my GTX 1060 6GB using the Riser card.
Most probably I will use the 1060 for GPU Memory intensive tasks (not gaming, not mining but similar to mining), so bandwidth
plays even less of a role.
TDP: GTX 1060 6GB: 120W RTX 3060 TI: 200W with 330W spare for the motherboard, CPU, and actual GPU power draw.
So say I got that RTX 3060 TI, I have the PSU requirements, I can house it at my motherboard's normal PCIe 3.0 x16 slot,
and connect my older, GTX 1060 6GB using the riser card that I'll buy. Everything should work properly, right? well, here are:
My questions / concerns:
4. Since the M.2 runs at PCIe standard, will my motherboard treat the GTX 1060 I will connect to it normally?
If the bandwidth is not an issue, everything should work normally, right? How about if the card isn't connected
to a monitor? Would that be an issue to use it for said GPU Memory intensive tasks? Again - NOT mining. Screw miners.
5. I have some more minor concerns about cooling, my Sharkoon Case seems to be big enough to store the motherboard,
the PSU, and the GPU at the bottom of it. But 2 GPUs on a 2 fan chassis seems like a possible thermal throttle scenario.
The cards themselves aren't rated for a very high TDP, only 320W combined, which is 30 less than an RTX 3090.
BTW - a recommended PSU for an RTX 3090 is 750W, using that ratio, 2 GPUs running at a total of 320W should have
a recommended PSU of 685W, which is very close to my 650W PSU.
That's pretty much about it. If I can pull this off, I can preserve my whole system, and upgrade JUST the GPU,
while keeping the older one functioning - which almost sounds too good to be true. Any other thoughts you guys have?
I'm thinking about buying an RTX 3060 TI as a future upgrade for my PC.
My PC Build is the most common budget/mid-range build from a few years back:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (With Asus PRIME B350M-E)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (Gigabyte WindForce 2x OC)
2x8GB 3200 HyperX DDR4 RAM CL 18 (shame its 18, I know)
Corsair VS650 ( 80 Plus White PSU rated 650W )
I've done some research and discovered the following:
- There's a Riser Card that could act as an adapter from an M.2 M key to PCIe x16
- Even an Overclocked RTX 3090 can run on PCIe 2.0 x16 with small performance loss.
- My motherboard has what seems to be a compatible M.2 M key Connector, capable running at PCIe 3.0 x4.
- My PSU is rated for enough power to accommodate my GTX 1060 6GB AND an RTX 3060 TI, according to this article.
- My PSU has just enough (2x 6/8 pin EPS/ATX12V) cables, the 1060 uses 1x 6 pin and the 3060 uses 1x 8 pin.
- According to the video at #2 - 4k 120 Hz needs around 4GB/s, a simple calculation yields that 1080p at 120 Hz needs a quarter of that,
Quadruple than what my 1080p 120hz gaming will require if I decide to game on my GTX 1060 6GB using the Riser card.
Most probably I will use the 1060 for GPU Memory intensive tasks (not gaming, not mining but similar to mining), so bandwidth
plays even less of a role.
TDP: GTX 1060 6GB: 120W RTX 3060 TI: 200W with 330W spare for the motherboard, CPU, and actual GPU power draw.
So say I got that RTX 3060 TI, I have the PSU requirements, I can house it at my motherboard's normal PCIe 3.0 x16 slot,
and connect my older, GTX 1060 6GB using the riser card that I'll buy. Everything should work properly, right? well, here are:
My questions / concerns:
- Is there a difference between M.2 M and M.2 M2 keys (both support the 2280 form factor)?
- Is a 650W 80 Plus rated PSU really capable of handling my system + both GPUs when they are at full load? (stock clock rates)
- (This I could probably find out myself): Does the RAM CL18 relative high latency can significantly decrease
4. Since the M.2 runs at PCIe standard, will my motherboard treat the GTX 1060 I will connect to it normally?
If the bandwidth is not an issue, everything should work normally, right? How about if the card isn't connected
to a monitor? Would that be an issue to use it for said GPU Memory intensive tasks? Again - NOT mining. Screw miners.
5. I have some more minor concerns about cooling, my Sharkoon Case seems to be big enough to store the motherboard,
the PSU, and the GPU at the bottom of it. But 2 GPUs on a 2 fan chassis seems like a possible thermal throttle scenario.
The cards themselves aren't rated for a very high TDP, only 320W combined, which is 30 less than an RTX 3090.
BTW - a recommended PSU for an RTX 3090 is 750W, using that ratio, 2 GPUs running at a total of 320W should have
a recommended PSU of 685W, which is very close to my 650W PSU.
That's pretty much about it. If I can pull this off, I can preserve my whole system, and upgrade JUST the GPU,
while keeping the older one functioning - which almost sounds too good to be true. Any other thoughts you guys have?