My current graphics card has a 6 pin connector for the power supply it is a 1650 super gtx, I am upgrading a to a EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 XC 8GB GDDR6 but it has a 8 pin connector, how would i go about doing this would i have to buy a 8 pin connector or does the graphics card come with one?
The graphics cards I have bought assume you have the appropriate power connection available out of the power supply.
The 8-pin connector can draw twice the power of the 6-pin connector, so just adapting the connector on the current power cable may not be sufficient.
Your power supply would ideally have a connector that has a 6+2 pin configuration, which is to say there’s two pins that can be separated to make it fit into a 6-pin connector, or kept in place for an 8-pin connector. Alternatively if it’s a (semi-)modular power supply it may even have come with a different cable that has an 8-pin, though these are less common than the adaptive versions.
If your power supply lacks either option, it may be in your best interest to exchange it for a newer one. Supplies that only feature the 6-pin connector are going to be quite old, and are likely to be nearing the end of their lifespan anyway given the 8-pin connector was introduced in 2007.
A long, long while back now there were adapters included to take two 6-pin connectors and merge them into a single 8-pin to ease its introduction, but they’ve long since stopped being included due to power supplies incorporating dedicated connectors. They can still be acquired, however, should it prove absolutely necessary.
There are also molex-to-6-pin adapters, but I only mention these so as to also mention that it’s not a good idea to “chain” adapters for anything more than brief diagnostic purposes.
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