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February 20th, 2011 00:00
Area-51 ALX, GPU Power Connection Question
Hi everyone. I have a question after looking over the Dell KB concerning
Alienware Aurora and Aurora ALX May Experience Blue Screen Errors Due to Graphics Card Power Cable - Product Support Quick Note (PSQN) - 369588
This article shows the dual 295 GTX as
| Dual NVIDIA GTX 295 | T682N | P14 - 1st Card P16 - 2nd Card |
P15 - 1st Card (2x4) P17 - 2nd Card (2x4) |
looking over my system I have only,
Yellow Cables (P16, P17)
Blue Cables (P18, P19)
Black Cables (P20, P21)
I'm not sure exactly how they should be connected based on the table for the Dual 295's. From the factory they were both Yellow on one GPU and both Blue on the second GPU. Is there a problem with having the GPUs connected this way?
BIOS A10, i7 960, 6GB Dell stock memory (1600), NVIDIA 266.58 driver, No overclocking on CPU or 295's.
Thanks.
morblore
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February 20th, 2011 05:00
You would want it like this:
Yellow Cables (P16, P17) > Only powering the top OR bottom 8-pin
Blue Cables (P18, P19) > Only powering the top OR bottom 8-pin
Black Cables (P20, P21) > Only powering the top AND bottom 6-pin
You only want ono cable powering one 8-pin and only one cable powering two 6-pins. One cable can not power two 8-pins but one cable can power two 6-pins. The cables you use ( different colors) can be switched around so long as you stick to this rule.
The idea here is to split the loads on the PSU rails. One PCI-E 8-pin pulls 150w. One PCI-E 6pin pulls 75w. That is why you can run two 6-pins or one 8-pin since ether way its 150w. The PCI-E slot pulls another 75w but that doesn't matter for this.
This is a general rule and can't always be met. Like for me I am running 3 GPU's and I only have 4 cables. When this happens you run the top card ( the one running the monitor ) off two cables since it takes the most power from the system. Then the middle card off two cables and the bottom card off one cable.
If that doesn't work then you have two options for the bottom card. You can get a molex splitter and split a molex into a PCI-E 6-pin or use a supplemental power supply unit to run the bottom card.
llewsor
11 Posts
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February 20th, 2011 15:00
Thanks for the reply Morblore. I set reconnected using your suggestion. Thanks for the explanation.
Andrew1965
2 Posts
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October 21st, 2011 10:00
Hi,
My AREA-51 has the 1.2 Kw power supply unit with the yellow cable ( 2x 6-pin P16 and P17 connectors), the blue cable (2x 6-pin P18 and P19 connectors), the black & white cable (2x 6-pin P20 and P21 connectors), and the black & yellow cable (2x 6-pin P23 and P24). Plus, each of the cables has a 2-pin connector attached.
My computer originally came with the OEM version GTX-560 Ti with the P16 and P17 connectors attached to it, but I replaced it with a GTX-570 and I attached the same two connectors to it. I assume this is the correct method of connecting these video cards. I bought a 2nd GTX-570 for SLI mode and I haven't yet installed it since I'm not sure if the connectors I should be using for it are P18 and P19 or something else. What do you suggest?