[SOLVED] Can someone advise what kind of cable i need please?

[jthornton]

I just purchased an MSI RX 570 graphics card. On the box it just said 450w PSU required. I have an 850w PSU. However, the connectors don't match.

My PSU has 3 ports that accept 6pi and the GPU has 1 port that takes 8 pins.

Can someone point me to the correct cable?

PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850W
GPU: MSI Armor Radeon RX 570 OC

 

[Metal Messiah.]

Are you asking for one of the PCI-e cables for your GPU, or something else ? Your GPU requires a SINGLE 8-pin connector. They must be labelled as PCI-E. Look for these. One side of these go directly into the PSU, and the 6+2 PIN goes into the GPU.

 

[R4DIO4CT1VE]

Its strange that the plugs on the PSU are 6pin. Have you looked at the wires that came with your PSU? I would assume your PCIE cables have one side that are 6pin for the PSU and one side that are 8 pin (or 6+2) for your graphics card.

 

[tennis2]

Older PSUs may not have 8 pin PCIe. Just get a 6 pin to 8 pin adapter, they're $5 or less. That GPU doesn't draw much power off the PCIe cable.

 

[jthornton]

Sorry for the delay, I didn't get notified that anyone posted.

I read something that said the GPU uses 150W power and the 6 pins are only 75W power. It then said something about getting a y type adapter with 2x6pin and 1x8pin.

I found one but I wasn't sure if it was the right one.

 

[jthornton]

Does anyone know if this cable would work for my computer? It says mac pro. Ate the cables different?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1dAIFms6OcyW-Dwa0RL0IX

 

[tennis2]

No. That's a mini 6 pin.

Here you go.
https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-PCIEX68ADAP-Express-6-Pin-Adapter/dp/B001TK3TJY

 

[Karadjgne]

Hold up. You absolutely do not need any adapters. Your psu came with plenty of modular cables for that. And they are not interchangeable. It does not matter the pin count on the psu side. That connector is just a connector, it could have 4,5,6, or 10 pins, wouldn't make a difference.

On the back (depending on version of that psu) is 5x straight 5pin connections, and either 3x or 6x 6pin cube connections. The 5pin straights are for periphials such as Sata or hdd or floppy or molex. The other cube 6pins are for pcie. Those psus can come with 6x 6+2pin pcie. One side has just a 6pin and plugs into the psu. The other side has a little 2pin dongle attached to a 6pin pcie. You physically connect the dongle to the pcie and get an 8pin pcie.

Don't try plugging in seperately. You have to join them together (they are keyed) before plugging into the gpu.

Ignore the fact the psu is Semi-Modular. For all intents and purposes, when you plug a cable into the psu, it's exactly no different than any of the wires that are in that giant bundle. The only benefit of Semi-Modular is that if you don't need a cable, you don't have to add it. So there's no big bundle of un-used wires hanging out making a mess in the bottom of your case. So the actual connection pin count can be ignored, it's just a plug. The other end, that goes to the gpu is the only thing that matters, if you needed a 6pin and 8pin, you'd simply plug in 2x pcie cables to the psu and both the other ends to the gpu, leaving one dongle hanging loose.

@tennis2 . Seriously? A 75w 6pin to 150w 8pin single adapter? Are you trying to burn something up?

 

[jthornton]

@karadjgnim, thank you for such a detailed reply but I don't really understand what you are getting at. I did not keep the wires that came with my pay PSU which is why I need another one.

@tennis2 the card I have uses 120w of power. I read that 75w comes from the 16x pcie slot and then 75w from the pcie 6-pin cable. The article I read said the 2x 6pins to 1x 8pin is needed if tour card uses more than 150w.

The cable that you listed above will not work though. I need a Male on both ends. The 6pin you listed is female.

What is a mini pcie cable?

 

[Karadjgne]

If you have lost/trashed your cables, there is only one solution. Contact CoolerMaster directly for replacement set. Psu modular cables are specific to each psu (few exceptions) so there is no adapter or generic equivalent. Some models such as the CoolerMaster V series have cable parts online, but they won't fit your particular psu.

Contact CoolerMaster tech support directly.

 

[tennis2]

The 6 pin power cable coming off your PSU is Male..... computer cables are heterosexual.

 

[Karadjgne]

@tennis2

Its a modular cable...
And it's missing, there is no cable. The port on the psu is female and not populated. OP needs a new cable..

Wake up. Your coffee got cold.. Lol

 

[tennis2]

I misunderstood the OPs original statement. The "three 6-pin ports on the back of my PSU" does not necessarily have the conventional pinout that a 6-pin PCIe cable end has (it may sound silly, but it does happen...). You can see by comparing the images below that at the very least, a conventional 6-pin male connector would not fit into the top center lug of your PSU: (notice the shape of the ports, square-beveled-beveled along the top row compared to the standard square-square-beveled)

Keep in mind here, a good new 550W 80+ Gold modular PSU costs $50-$65 in the USA.... and something like the Corsair CX450 costs $20. Don't spend more than this is worth.

 

[jthornton]

I have an 850W power supply so I don't want to drop more on one. I need more than 550w.

However, I found the cables that came with my power supply. However they are 6pin to 6+2pin. I connected it to the card and it still doesn't seem to be sending a signal to the hdmi tv. I looked up the power consumption of my card and it is the 8GB OC version so it needs 150W so I bought an 6pin Y to 6pin female and then used the supplied 6pin to 6+2pin cable provided thinking that would supply 150W and still no signal.

Do I have to turn it on I the bios? I thought that a video card works by default when you plug it in.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Karadjgne]

What? If you found the original cables, then just use a pcie. You seem to have your head wrapped around the idea that 6 pin means anything. It doesn't. At the psu you plug in the 6pin end and the 6+2pin goes to the gpu. No need for any adapters or wattage calculations.

8pin means 150w. 8pin has 3 yellow 12v and 3 black grounds and 2 black sense wires. A 6pin pcie has 2x yellow, 3x black and 1x sense.

The PSU CONNECTOR IS 3X YELLOW AND 3X BLACK. 150W.

 

[tennis2]

We don't know what CPU you have, but I'd put good money on saying you absolutely DON'T need more than 550W. I have an i5-3570K OCd to 4.2GHz and an RX480 8GB @1305MHz and while running BOTH Prime95 and FurMark my system power draw at the wall is 260W (290W with GPU voltage on Auto), which means 230-260W at the PSU.

Regardless, sounds like we need to address the no signal issue. As Karad said, you need to connect the 6+2 pin to your GPU, and connect the HDMI cable to the GPU (not the mobo). If that's how you've got it, you may need to go into your BIOS and set "primary graphics adapter" to Auto and if that doesn't work, set it to dGPU.

 

[Karadjgne]

Sometimes in some bios the gpu is listed as PEG

 

[jthornton]

@Karadjgne: To be honest, as I'm sure you can tell, I don't know a ton about GPU's. I was under the impression that 6pin from the PSU meant 75W and 8pin meant 150W.

My PSU only came with a 6pin to 8pin adapter, so I assumed it was 75W of power. I have not measured it or anything. That said, the cable (wires and connectors) are black. So I don't know how many wires would be yellow or black on it.

Because I thought it was 75W, this is how I have it setup:

6pin
6pin 8pin (GPU) ----> HDMI
6pin

From left to right, it would be PSU, Y-adapter, PSU cable (original), outputted from the HDMI port on the GPU card to the TV.

@tennis2: I have a Z97 MSi gaming motherboard, i7 processor (I can't remember which one), 12GB ram, RX570 8GB OC video card, 1xSSD, 6 HDD's

 

[jthornton]

Thanks for your help! I got it working. I didn't have PEG set in the bios.

 

[tennis2]

I can't understand your cable layout description since the stock 6pin (proprietary) to 6+2pin is the only cable that will connect to the PSU... just remove the adapter from the chain and only use the stock cable that came with the PSU.

 

[FarmerFredd]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/difference-between-cpu-8-pin-and-gpu-8-pin.157117/

 

[Karadjgne]

There's confusion about connectors.

There's a huge difference between FROM and TO. A 6pin pcie FROM the psu is 75w.
An 8 pin pcie FROM the psu is 150w.

Has exactly nothing to do with what's plugged TO the psu. The psu end could be anything. It could be 4pin, 5pin, 6pin, 8pin etc doesn't matter. When you plug that pcie cable into the psu, it's exactly identical to having a non-modular psu, like the cables come straight from the psu with no connector. It's just a plug. Pin count is immaterial. It's only the component end that matters.

Think of it this way. You have a wall socket. It's (in the US) usually rated at 120v 15A, has a vertical hot, neutral and round ground. That socket works for anything that plugs into it, doesn't matter if it's a tiny 1A 5v USB brick or a large 8A 12v laptop brick or a 1500w curling iron. The only thing that matters is the other end of the cable, you couldn't power the curling iron with the usb cable, just as you'd not want to charge a phone from the curling iron. But once you plug any of those bricks/wires into the socket, the only thing that matters is what kind of plug is on the end of that wire, the socket itself no longer matters.

You looked at the psu, has a 6pin modular connection and assumed that was that. No. It's no different to the wall socket. Only thing that matters is whether it's a 6pin gpu end or 6+2pin gpu end. The cable itself is now just an extension of the psu, like the modular connection never existed.

 

[jthornton]

Sometimes in some bios the gpu is listed as PEG

Thank you @Karadjgnethis was the solution!!! I reseated the graphics card , made this PEG change and it worked (no Y adapter needed).