Can I fore more wattage through the PCI E slot?

Ali Husain

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Nov 25, 2015
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Hi, I was wondering that if you want to buy a cheap graphic card, that requires a 6 pin, but barely outdoes the 75 watt limitation (85-100 watts) if you can just force your PCI lane to deliver more wattage through BIOS editing or flashing. My motherboard is slightly old, but more or less quite reliable (GA H61M S1).
 
Solution
If a psu has the ability to deliver 6 pin pcie power, it will include the lead.

The wattage is not the right metric.
A GPU and CPU use the +12v amps.
Look at the data plate on your psu and look for the combined +12v amps. If it is expressed on watts, divide by 12.
A psu that can deliver sufficient power via a 6 pin adapter should show 24-28a.
Older or cheaper units will deliver the wattage on lesser voltages.

I suppose you could try it. If the psu is of good quality and gets overloaded, it will simply shut down.
If it does not have more expensive protective circuitry, it can damage your parts.
No, in fact there was a controversy about RX480 cards drawing more than the 75w that the pcie specs permit.

If you have a cheap psu that can not deliver sufficient power, it is dangerous to your other parts and should be replaced.
Exactly what make/model is your psu and what graphics card are you looking at?
 


The RX460, and my PSU is a Gigabyte GE C320N A2, not very common, but it supplies 320 watts of power, and because I might not be able to get a reference version that does fit within the PCI specifications, the extra 6 pin that is required is not there on my current PSU.
 
If a psu has the ability to deliver 6 pin pcie power, it will include the lead.

The wattage is not the right metric.
A GPU and CPU use the +12v amps.
Look at the data plate on your psu and look for the combined +12v amps. If it is expressed on watts, divide by 12.
A psu that can deliver sufficient power via a 6 pin adapter should show 24-28a.
Older or cheaper units will deliver the wattage on lesser voltages.

I suppose you could try it. If the psu is of good quality and gets overloaded, it will simply shut down.
If it does not have more expensive protective circuitry, it can damage your parts.
 
Solution


Can you? As in, is it possible? Yes - at least I know how to with NVidia cards. You would need to flash a custom VBIOS, and then you would need to install NVidia Inspector and enable the setting to ignore the PCI-E power spec. I had a 750Ti that I bumped up to 85 watts that way. I wouldn't recommend doing that, however - I only did that because the card had NO 6-pin or 8-pin connector.

You are much better off configuring the card to pull more than 75 watts from the 6-pin. As long as you have a good PSU, you can get away with it. I've had my 980Ti's pulling 100W from the 6-pin and 175W from the 8-pin for months.
 


Yes, I can already tell that the PSU is not of good quality, and that the amount of amperes it can deliver is moderately low, and now that you bring this to mind, my PSU will definitely not be able to run this GPU, I tested by overvolting my CPU - a generally low end CPU, G2030 - by +0.4 Volts, which would effectively increase current by 1.3 amps, and forcing the PSU to shutdown. Any more strain on the V12 rail, and my PSU will not be able to handle and force shutdown, I am better off buying a new PSU instead of cheap shortcuts that will decrease the lifespan of my components. (By the way I calculated this from 1.5 volts = 0.3 amps)
 


But, the problem seems to be similar to your overclocked 750Ti, I don't have a 6 pin connector in my system and the card I am getting pulls 84 watts load, which apparently doesn't need a 6 pin connector either, but for safety I wish to overclock my PCI, or second option, downclock the card, if you have find a BIOS flash that does the trick, please let me know, thanks for the help!