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6800XT connected to PSU via single cable
(lemmy.nz)
I saw this picture while looking at overclocking guides and I wondered if I may have my power setup incorrectly. My GPU is currently connected exactly like the don't do this diagram.
If your GPU has two power connectors you should always use two runs from the PSU.
You only have to ask yourself why they would bother with the second connector if it was okay to just attach a little extension to the end of a single cable.
Some cards may run fine with this setup, but you're going to be increasing fire risk by potentially running more amps down a wire than is safe to.
You only need to ask yourself why the PSU manufacturer would bother including the second connector on the same cable if it wasn't ok to use it.
If you use a third party extension/splitter that would be another story but it doesn't look that way in the diagram.
I seem to remember they started doing those daisy chain power connectors back in the SLi days. Take the GeForce 6800GT for example, which was a single slot card rated for 67 watts and had a single 6-pin power socket. You could safely drive two of them in SLi on a single 150 watt PCIe power cable. Hell they'd probably both run fine on motherboard power.
Many cards used to use 3 connectors so you'd run two lines and a third from the second connector of one of the lines.
The diagram op posted is from nvidia and seasonic and fixes many stability issues, not fire hazzards