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Question about GPU power

Inutopia

Inutopia

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2009
299
84
South of Heaven
Hi,

Just a quick question:

I'm looking at getting a GTX 970 to replace my ageing 6870. the one I want is the ASUS STRIX, as its got a really good cooler:

Link

http://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics_Cards/STRIXGTX970DC2OC4GD5/

It's powered by only 1x8pin PCI-E, i.e. it doesn't have another 6 pin connector.

If I get this 2x6 to 1x8 adaptor, and plug it into both the sockets on my 2008 MP logic board, will that work?

heres a link to the adaptor:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVGA-PCI-...613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aa67ce6f5

Any help very appreciated, thanks :)

EDIT: Looking at a review of the card on HardOCP it seems the TDP of it is 145W
 
Last edited:
Inutopia said:
Hi,

Just a quick question:

I'm looking at getting a GTX 970 to replace my ageing 6870. the one I want is the ASUS STRIX, as its got a really good cooler:

Link

http://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics_Cards/STRIXGTX970DC2OC4GD5/

It's powered by only 1x8pin PCI-E, i.e. it doesn't have another 6 pin connector.

If I get this 2x6 to 1x8 adaptor, and plug it into both the sockets on my 2008 MP logic board, will that work?

heres a link to the adaptor:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVGA-PCI-...613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aa67ce6f5

Any help very appreciated, thanks :)

EDIT: Looking at a review of the card on HardOCP it seems the TDP of it is 145W
Click to expand...

Hey,

Yes, theoretically speaking this should work perfectly fine.

However, the cable you linked is a "regular" 6 pin cabel. The Mac Pro logic board only supports "mini 6 pin" connectors. Or is this different for the 2008 model?

Keep in mind that you'll need Yosemite in order for the 970 to work though.
 
Hi,

thanks for the reply :)

That's a good point.

I'll be connecting the adapter to the ends of my current two 6 pin cables, I'm using them to power my 6870 at the moment, does that make sense?
 
Inutopia said:
Hi,

thanks for the reply :)

That's a good point.

I'll be connecting the adapter to the ends of my current two 6 pin cables, I'm using them to power my 6870 at the moment, does that make sense?
Click to expand...

Oh, the 6 pin ends on the ebay cable are female, didn't notice that, sorry!
So just for clarification:

Logic board -> current "6870 cables" -> adapter cable -> GTX 970

right?

If so, should work fine. Could get a little messy with all those cables though :D
 
Yea thats the plan at least! :)

It will be a bit of cables, but you should see what I hacked together for USB 3! Power coming from the optical bays, crimped together with jellys and run behind one of the hard drives hahaha :)

The whole thing is only temporary anyway, I'm going to build a hackintosh in the summer and put the 970 in that. the mac pro will be getting sold.
 
Inutopia said:
Yea thats the plan at least! :)

It will be a bit of cables, but you should see what I hacked together for USB 3 power coming from the optical bays, crimped together with jellys and run behind one of the hard drives hahaha :)

The whole thing is only temporary anyway, I'm going to build a hackintosh in the summer and put the 970 in that. the mac pro will be getting sold.
Click to expand...

Well, good luck then! ;)
For me it's vice versa. I came from the hackintosh and never looked back since I got my Mac Pro.

The Hackintosh was WAY to unstable. Random errors occuring out of nowhere, not being able to update without messing everything up, KEXTs etc...

Probably changed alot since then though. I built mine around sandy bridge time.

Still, could never get rid of my MP for a hackintosh :D
 
MentalVizion said:
Well, good luck then! ;)
For me it's vice versa. I came from the hackintosh and never looked back since I got my Mac Pro.

The Hackintosh was WAY to unstable. Random errors occuring out of nowhere, not being able to update without messing everything up, KEXTs etc...

Probably changed alot since then though. I built mine around sandy bridge time.

Still, could never get rid of my MP for a hackintosh :D
Click to expand...

Yea, from what I've read/asked in forums if your careful with the component choice, these days you can have a nice stable machine. Updating is still something that requires thought, but that's the case with my 2008 MP anyway.

I'll be sad to leave the Mac Pro behind, it's been the best machine I've ever owned by a long way, but Apple no longer build computers for the likes of me and I'm not comfortable with spending £1000 for a 3 year old Mac Pro doesnt even come with USB3 at this point.
 
Inutopia said:
Hi,

Just a quick question:

I'm looking at getting a GTX 970 to replace my ageing 6870. the one I want is the ASUS STRIX, as its got a really good cooler:

Link

http://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics_Cards/STRIXGTX970DC2OC4GD5/

It's powered by only 1x8pin PCI-E, i.e. it doesn't have another 6 pin connector.

If I get this 2x6 to 1x8 adaptor, and plug it into both the sockets on my 2008 MP logic board, will that work?

heres a link to the adaptor:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVGA-PCI-...613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3aa67ce6f5

Any help very appreciated, thanks :)

EDIT: Looking at a review of the card on HardOCP it seems the TDP of it is 145W
Click to expand...

That should work just fine. If you power it up the first time with the 970 with the cover open - don't freak out when the fans on that 970 don't come on. If the ASUS is like my EVGA 970's it doesn't run the fans at *all* at idle by design - its a very cool running card. :)
 
matthewtoney said:
That should work just fine. If you power it up the first time with the 970 with the cover open - don't freak out when the fans on that 970 don't come on. If the ASUS is like my EVGA 970's it doesn't run the fans at *all* at idle by design - its a very cool running card. :)
Click to expand...

That's exactly why I'm getting the strix! :) I didn't know the EVGA's were passive at idle? I read quite a few reviews of the EVGA cards and none of them mentioned it.

Which one do you have?
 
Inutopia said:
That's exactly why I'm getting the strix! :) I didn't know the EVGA's were passive at idle? I read quite a few reviews of the EVGA cards and none of them mentioned it.

Which one do you have?
Click to expand...

Well, the standard non-OC ACX 2.0 one (with dual fans) - it actually came with an insert in the package telling you not to be alarmed by the fact that the fans only ran when the card was under load. :) Thing is I'm running 2 - that one and another EVGA 970 that is a slight OC (FTW+ I think) It didn't come with the same insert but works the same way - no fans until under load.
 
Inutopia said:
That's exactly why I'm getting the strix! :) I didn't know the EVGA's were passive at idle? I read quite a few reviews of the EVGA cards and none of them mentioned it.

Which one do you have?
Click to expand...

These came with my GTX 980 SuperClock cards (04G-P4-2983-KR).
 

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Hey folks,

Just to complete this thread - I got the ASUS STRIX GTX 970 today and all appears to be well in my 3,1 Mac Pro.

I'm using 10.10.3 with the appropriate drivers from Nvidia. Power seems fine, although I've not stressed the card yet. It's SUPER awesome having a card that is passive for desktop/light gaming use!

I'll post back if I run into any issues down the line. :)

EDIT: Card has now been running for a while and shows no problems under heavy load.
 

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Last edited:
Inutopia said:
Hey folks,

Just to complete this thread - I got the ASUS STRIX GTX 970 today and all appears to be well in my 3,1 Mac Pro.

I'm using 10.10.3 with the appropriate drivers from Nvidia. Power seems fine, although I've not stressed the card yet. It's SUPER awesome having a card that is passive for desktop/light gaming use!

I'll post back if I run into any issues down the line. :)

EDIT: Card has now been running for a while and shows no problems under heavy load.
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1476399824][/doublepost]I have an older model 2008 Mac Pro (build identifier 3,1). I followed up on the ASUS STRIX GTX 970 you mention regarding your 3,1 and I read that this card is a newer version and will also work in our older machings:
ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 6GB ROG STRIX OC Edition VR Ready HDMI 2.0 DP 1.4 Auto-extreme Graphics Card
Can anybody confirm?
 
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