MP 1,1-5,1 EVGA PowerLink with AMD GPUs

[MIKX]

Just got the EVGA PowerLink working with my Sapphire Dual-X 7970 3gb.

IMPORTANT : The power input sockets on the PowerLink are 2 X 8 Pin female and cannot be changed.

The EVGA PowerLink ensures that exact power demanded by a GPU is supplied. That said, one must still supply enough power to the PowerLink so that it can " do it's thing = balance and supply GPU demanded power to the relevant sockets! "

The PowerLink comes with 1 extra 6 pin & 8 pin socket to set the above socket combinations.
They are locked onto a power rail by Allen screws top & bottom - important to tighten them down.

Bear in mind that the POWER INPUT sockets on the Powerlink are BOTH female 8 pin and cannot be changed.

WILL IT FIT ?
​

My Sapphire Dual-X 7970 fans shroud blocked the installing of the EVGA unit by about 2.5 cm but seeing that this is an older card and that part of the fan shroud is cosmetic and and I will be upgrading in the future I cut away the blockage without any changes to cooling or operation of the GPU.

Cable setup
I now have only one spinner HDD as I boot from a Samsung M.2 NVMe 970 EVO and have two SanDisk SSDs in my DVDI drive's now vacant space​

This is how my EVGA PowerLink setup looks now.

The EVGA PowerLink costs about US$6 ~ 10 including shipping from Amazon.

Obviously this unit was designed originally for Nvidia GPUs but I'm pretty certain that it would work OOB for most AMD HD 7970, R9 280, R9 280X GPUS and any cards that have eg : 2 X 8 pin like the HIS IceQ R9 280X etc..

if you are already using an EVGA PowerLink with an AMD card PLEASE post your story in this thread.


Thanks to Synchro3's very useful hint that I had forgotten about.

 

[Synchro3]

Of course the two female 8 pin sockets cannot be changed and don't need to be changed, because one can just put a 6 pin plug in the 8 pin socket.

Be aware that you plug a 6 pin cable in the 8 pin socket the right way.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...graphics-cards.1440150/page-199#post-26944275

That's how it is engineered:

 

[MIKX]

Synchro3

I tried that and got no video.

EDIT : synchro3 was correct. . see my humble admission in post #4

New updated pics tomorrow .. too tired tonight.

 

[MIKX]

Of course the two female 8 pin sockets cannot be changed and don't need to be changed, because one can just put a 6 pin plug in the 8 pin socket.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...graphics-cards.1440150/page-199#post-26944275


View attachment 818182

That's how it is engineered:

View attachment 818189

Synchro3

You were right ! I tried putting the PCIe 6 pin into the EVGA 8 pin socket first try . . . but got zero video but years ago I found that that worked with an ASUS card.

This time I probably didn't do a final check to see if the PCIe 6 pin had truly locked in . . . . and yes . .it had indeed not locked in.

in any case . .

it worked !​

Thanks for the reminder.

Damn ! tomorrow I'll have to redo all the fancy graphics in my first post.

So folks. . you can put a PCIe 6 pin into an 8 pin EVGA power input socket. . if you want standard 6 pin PCIe power to flow to the EVGA PowerLink's power pool and then onto the GPU's 6 PCIe pin.

Personally I feel relieved that the EVGA PowerLink works with my AMD Sapphire Dual-X 3 gb card, now I don't have to worry about unbalanced power being supplied to it.

 

[thornslack]

I didn’t know you could do that, good tip @Synchro3. $25 for a power link though.... oof. I think I paid like $10 direct from evga. Definitely a cool gadget. It seemed to trigger my psu fan to run higher even at idle though, although it did prevent the occasional odd trigger shut down and I could even overclock my Titan X a bit in windows.

 

[Synchro3]

Yes, and the PCI fan is also more responsive with the PowerLink installed. And that's good.

 

[MIKX]

BUMPED : I had to replace the pics in the first post due to Synchro3's apt observation that you actually CAN insert the PCIe 1 X 6 pin to dual SATA cable socket into the Powerlink's 8 pin female PCIe 8 pin socket ( on the right side of the 8 pin socket - see the new pics in post#1 )
[doublepost=1548567392][/doublepost]

I didn’t know you could do that, good tip @Synchro3. $25 for a power link though.... oof. I think I paid like $10 direct from evga. .

I'm in Japan so shipping was probably a factor. I think the unit price was US$ 14.95

 

[MIKX]

I could even overclock my Titan X a bit in windows.

thornslack

If you have time can you post some details on your EGA Powerlink installation, did the Titan X fit ? Cabling etc.
That would be useful for other Titan X owners.
Thanks

 

[thornslack]

I was using it with a Pascal Titan X, and it did fit but only with careful maneuvering. I used two mini six-pin to eight-pin cables from the logic board to the power link. The gpu had to be in the lowest pcie slot, because the the pcie fan grating is larger at the bottom. There is about an inch between that fan cover and the actual fan itself, and I used that space to accommodate the wiring over flow as I recall. I’ve since sold my Titan X and have been limping along with an old flashed evga gtx 780 classified I’ve had for some time. That card is massive and the only way to use the power link with it would be to temporarily remove the pcie fan cage to install the card, or perhaps to modify the power link itself as @Prince134 did here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ultimate-mac-pro-5-1-mod-for-triple-titan-x.2043646/

 

[startergo]

Just got the EVGA PowerLink working with my Sapphire Dual-X 7970 3gb.

IMPORTANT : The power input sockets on the PowerLink are 2 X 8 Pin female and cannot be changed.

View attachment 818368
The EVGA PowerLink ensures that exact power demanded by a GPU is supplied. That said, one must still supply enough power to the PowerLink so that it can " do it's thing = balance and supply GPU demanded power to the relevant sockets! "

The PowerLink comes with 1 extra 6 pin & 8 pin socket to set the above socket combinations.
They are locked onto a power rail by Allen screws top & bottom - important to tighten them down.

Bear in mind that the POWER INPUT sockets on the Powerlink are BOTH female 8 pin and cannot be changed.

WILL IT FIT ?
​

My Sapphire Dual-X 7970 fans cover blocked the installing of the EVGA unit by about 2.5 cm but seeing that this is an older card and that part of the fan cover is cosmetic and and I will be upgrading in the future I cut away the blockage without any changes to cooling or operation of the GPU.

View attachment 818369

Cable setup
I now have only one spinner HDD as I boot from a Samsung M.2 NVMe 970 EVO and have two SanDisk SSDs in my DVDI drive's now vacant space​

View attachment 818370



This is how my EVGA PowerLink setup looks now.

View attachment 818371

The EVGA PowerLink cost US$ 25.78 including shipping from Amazon.

Obviously this unit was designed originally for Nvidia GPUs but I'm pretty certain that it would work OOB for most AMD HD 7970, R9 280, R9 280X GPUS and any cards that have eg : 2 X 8 pin like the HIS IceQ R9 280X etc..

if you are already using an EVGA PowerLink with an AMD card PLEASE post your story in this thread.


Thanks to Synchro3's very useful hint that I had forgotten about.

Isn't this an overkill? mini 6 pin =120w, and the SATA power is 54W . So you are providing 348W to the power link. I believe the SATA power is not needed on a 6+8 pin cards. You might need it for 8+8 cards .

 

[tsialex]

Isn't this an overkill? mini 6 pin =120w, and the SATA power is 54W . So you are providing 348W to the power link. I believe the SATA power is not needed on a 6+8 pin cards. You might need it for 8+8 cards .

miniPCIe 6 pin is 75W, 120W (peak power) is where the sensor shuts down the Mac Pro. If you constantly use over 75W you will reduce drastically the lifespan of the backplane.

 

[startergo]

miniPCIe 6 pin is 75W, 120W (peak power) is where the sensor shuts down the Mac Pro. If you constantly use over 75W you will reduce drastically the lifespan of the backplane.

Ok so for the 225W limit which is the 6+8 connector we need the 2 mini 6 connectors+ 1 SATA connector (assuming around 30 W power draw from the PCIE slot).

 

[MIKX]

This is my current 4,1>5,1 cMP using the EVGA PowerLink with a Sapphire Dual-X 7970.
I had to cut off a small bit of the end of the 7970's fan's shroud - nothing to affect the GPU.

Everything seems to be working properly and certainly looks less cable-messy.

It would be nice to eventually have a STICKY list of which AMD cards will work with the EVGA.

WHY ? : because not many cMP owners are up to doing the PSU mod &. I suspect that more then a few people are using the "from cMP 6 pin to 8 pin to GPU 8 pin socket " cable hack which many here feel will over stress the power lines on the cMP motherboard.

Recent photo of my 4,1>5,1

 

[startergo]

This is my current 4,1>5,1 cMP using the EVGA PowerLink with a Sapphire Dual-X 7970.
I had to cut off a small bit of the end of the 7970's fan's shroud - nothing to affect the GPU.

Everything seems to be working properly and certainly looks less cable-messy.

It would be nice to eventually have a STICKY list of which AMD cards will work with the EVGA.

WHY ? : because not many cMP owners are up to doing the PSU mod &. I suspect that more then a few people are using the "from cMP 6 pin to 8 pin to GPU 8 pin socket " cable hack which many here feel will over stress the power lines on the cMP motherboard.

Recent photo of my 4,1>5,1

View attachment 822148

So I see you are not using here the SATA power to the EVGA Powerlink. Are you just using the 2- 6 mini pins?

 

[MIKX]

Two cMP motherboard 6 pin to 8 PIN to EVGA 8 pin power input + two SATA to one 8 PIN to EVGA power inputs.

Both of the EVGA " POWER INPUTS " are 8 pin sockets - they cannot be changed.

One of the EVGA outputs to the GPU can be changed to a 6 pin male socket.

 

[startergo]

Two cMP motherboard 6 pin to 8 PIN to EVGA 8 pin power input + two SATA to one 8 PIN to EVGA power inputs.

Both of the EVGA " POWER INPUTS " are 8 pin sockets - they cannot be changed.

One of the EVGA outputs to the GPU can be changed to a 6 pin male socket.

But I see you did not use the SATA power from the CD-rom SATA cables you have an SSD there . I guess you used different place for the SATA power, right?

 

[MIKX]

Yes, I want more airflow through the cMPs main chamber. so only one spinner ( soon to be banished ) in SATA slot 4.

more airflow to the Sapphire 7970 & the very soon to be installed IOCrest NVMe 2 blade adapter and a slim R9 280 X GPU.

The single SSD in the DVD drive cage space allows more airflow to the PSU.

The hot Japanese summer is coming. Peaks at 39‡C ~ 40°C ! humid too.

 

[equals]

Hi folks.
I've built a power adapter for my Vega FE today. The whole idea is based on the PowerLink architecture with a couple of differences. So, my adapter has two 8 pin power input connectors and two power output cables with 8 (6+2) pin connectors. One input utilizes cMP's dual mini 6 pin power to 8 pin, the second one utilizes dual SATA power to 8 pin. I used a Schottky diode package to mix the power lanes only in one direction towards the GPU (thus SATA power never reaches the logic board PCIe power lanes and vice versa) and a 2200uF 25V cap to add some filtering. Everything works pretty well even under heavy load.
I'll add some photos in the next few days.

 

[startergo]

Hi folks.
I've built a power adapter for my Vega FE today. The whole idea is based on the PowerLink architecture with a couple of differences. So, my adapter has two 8 pin power input connectors and two power output cables with 8 (6+2) pin connectors. One input utilizes cMP's dual mini 6 pin power to 8 pin, the second one utilizes dual SATA power to 8 pin. I used a Schottky diode package to mix the power lanes only in one direction towards the GPU (thus SATA power never reaches the logic board PCIe power lanes and vice versa) and a 2200uF 25V cap to add some filtering. Everything works pretty well even under heavy load.
I'll add some photos in the next few days.

But the 2 sata are 108W connected to 8 pin which requires 150W. Aren't you afraid of overloading the SATA ports?

 

[equals]

But the 2 sata are 108W connected to 8 pin which requires 150W. Aren't you afraid of overloading the SATA ports?

The main idea is that the power is being mixed via the Schottky diode package. I take the power from both sources and mix it together towards the GPU, thus the adapter output cables share this mixed power, and the load is being naturally shared between the sources. I could've used a more complicated load share scheme, but I'm not sure that this is necessary. Of course, I'll keep testing, will check temps, wattage and so on, but for now everything looks fine and safe enough.

 

[startergo]

The main idea is that the power is being mixed via the Schottky diode package. I take the power from both sources and mix it together towards the GPU, thus the adapter output cables share this mixed power, and the load is being naturally shared between the sources. I could've used a more complicated load share scheme, but I'm not sure that this is necessary. Of course, I'll keep testing, will check temps, wattage and so on, but for now everything looks fine and safe enough.

Here is some scary observation:

"SATA is rated for 54 watts/4.5 amps. - Do not convert from SATA to Molex/6-pin, this will cause an overdraw and could result in a fire."
[doublepost=1550355083][/doublepost]But 3 SATA to 8 pin is right on the money

 

[h9826790]

But the 2 sata are 108W connected to 8 pin which requires 150W. Aren't you afraid of overloading the SATA ports?

The 8pin is “rated” up to 150W, not “requires” 150W.

In his case, unless the 6+8pin on the card really draw more than 216W in total, the PowerLink won’t demand more than 108W from the SATA connected 8pin input.

But since the card will draw some power from the PCIe slot. The chance of a 6+8pin 7970 (non user OCed) really draw more than 216W (which max rated 225W) is very very low.

I agree that’s not a perfect way to feed the PowerLink in general. 3xSATA is a better choice. But in this particular case, dual SATA to single 8pin shouldn’t be an issue.

 

[Synchro3]

Some thoughts. Using the PowerLink and the secondary or 'efficiency' bios on a

- PowerColor RX Vega 56 Red Dragon (1 × 6 Pin, 1 × 8 Pin)
-Sapphire RX Vega 56 Nitro + (3 × 8 Pin)
- Sapphire RX Vega 56 Pulse (2 × 8 Pin)

or a reference
- AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (2 × 8 Pin)

it should be possible to run these cards without Pixlas mod in a Mac Pro.

These cards seem to be in the acceptable range for the normal PSU of the Mac Pro:

Source: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=https://www.computerbase.de/2018-04/powercolor-radeon-rx-vega-56-red-dragon-test/3/

However, I also heard the power peaks are much higher on AMD cards than on Nvidia cards.

Any concerns?

 

[startergo]

Some thoughts. Using the PowerLink and the secondary or 'efficiency' bios on a

- PowerColor RX Vega 56 Red Dragon (1 × 6 Pin, 1 × 8 Pin)
-Sapphire RX Vega 56 Nitro + (3 × 8 Pin)
- Sapphire RX Vega 56 Pulse (2 × 8 Pin)

or a reference
- AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (2 × 8 Pin)

it should be possible to run these cards without Pixlas mod in a Mac Pro.

These cards seem to be in the acceptable range for the normal PSU of the Mac Pro:
View attachment 822288
Source: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=https://www.computerbase.de/2018-04/powercolor-radeon-rx-vega-56-red-dragon-test/3/

However, I also heard the power peaks are much higher on AMD cards than on Nvidia cards.

Any concerns?

How about using one of these for 8 pin power? It looks like it is outputting 18A. Running 2 of these you don't need Pixla's mod.

 

[Synchro3]

My idea is to use a Vega 56 card internally with the Mac Pro PSU.