Question Will my 2012 Corsair AX850w PSU power the evga FTW3 RTX 3080 w/3 8-pin connectors?

[dsc106]

So it seems the RTX 3080 takes 2x8 pin connectors, but for some reason(?) the evga FTW3 powers it with 3 8-pin connectors?

I am wondering if my 2012 Corsair AX850 PSU can handle that. I know it handles it in terms of pure wattage, but I am not sure if the modular connections offer enough inputs. I also think I'd have to purchase another 8-pin connector if that's even possible?

Does anyone know if I can do this, or will I either need to go with an alternative RTX 3080 or upgrade my PSU to a newer Corsair with more modular connectors?

 

[chimaxi83]

If this is the connection plate of your PSU, you should be fine. It has room for four 8-pin PCI-e connectors.

 

[Grooveriding]

It's enough wattage, you just need the 3 8 pin connectors.

 

[Kenmitch]

Your power supply is from 2012? Not sure if I'd trust it if so.

 

[Mopetar]

Your power supply is from 2012? Not sure if I'd trust it if so.

Seems like it should be fine, even if it isn't going to hit the original capacity due to age since there's plenty of headroom. Maybe it would have had some issues before the firmware update where the card could spike up to 500W power draw for very brief periods of time, but that shouldn't be an issue here. Well at least as long as he isn't running one of those Intel CPUs that could draw 400W as well.

 

[Kenmitch]

Seems like it should be fine, even if it isn't going to hit the original capacity due to age since there's plenty of headroom. Maybe it would have had some issues before the firmware update where the card could spike up to 500W power draw for very brief periods of time, but that shouldn't be an issue here. Well at least as long as he isn't running one of those Intel CPUs that could draw 400W as well.

I just wanted to bring up the alleged age of the power supply as nobody else mentioned it. They don't last forever, but even new duds can take out a rig.

 

[Markfw]

Your power supply is from 2012? Not sure if I'd trust it if so.

I have like 4 of those, running 2080TI's at 100% load doing DC 24/7/365. Corsair of that ago are great. The only ones I have has die are the 860i and the 1200i. Its seems that the "i" series are garbage.

Edit: I did have an RM100x go bad, and it took out my motherboard, but I got as "damage" RMA, and they not only replaced the PSU but gave me a fair amount for the motherboard. I had one AX850 die, and it did not hurt anything else.

I have switched to EVGA though.

 

[dsc106]

The age makes (made?) me nervous. It's the AX850. At the time the warranty was 7 years, so it is now out of warranty. But I think it's 10 years now for the ones they are selling... basically the same?

If there's much chance the unit fails badly and fries all my new stuff ($500 X570 mobo, $800 5950x, $800-$1000 RTX 3080 (thinking i'll wait and spring for the 20gb model), samsung 980 pro nvmes...) I won't be happy.

But I heard they are designed to fail safe without any issue? I'd hate to retire it years early - I certainly don't run my system 24/7, nor at max load all the time, and it had plenty of headroom especially over the years with the 3930k and originally a GTX 670, then GTX 970, now 1080 TI.

But I will replace it with an AX1000 for this new build if you all tell me I ought to!

 

[stahlhart]

The only ones I have has die are the 860i and the 1200i. Its seems that the "i" series are garbage.

I must have been lucky and got a good 1200i -- it's been running two Maxwells in SLI pretty much 24/7 for six years now, and no issues. Undoubtedly the load here is not as demanding of it as you were with yours, though.

 

[AMD Die Hard]

I have a corsair HX1050 powering a i7 4770k and a 1070ti that has been going for 7 years now. They do make a decent power supply.

 

[dsc106]

So I think I am going to just replace my PSU, the big question is AX1000 vs AX1600i (or another alternative)?

I am looking at an RTX 3090 now instead, because I'll want the additional VRAM for my content creation and they presumably cancelled the 20gb 3080. I'd like headroom in the coming years to upgrade my system (who knows, maybe in a few years I'll bump to an HEDT higher power platform).

Is 1000 watts plenty, or am I on the edge (or crippling myself from future platform upgrades) without 1600 watts?

- Ryzen 5950x
- RTX 3090 FTW3
- 128gb RAM
- 4 NVME SSDs (using mobo + PCI-E expander card)
- 8 Internal HDDs (partially via a PCI-E SATA/SAS expansion card)
- 2 Optical Drives
- 5 Noctua Case Fans + 2 DH-15 cooler fans
- Misc USB 3 accessories running off system power (VR Headset, HOTAS, Force Feedback Steering Wheel, Wireless mouse charging pad, etc).

I seem to hit somewhere around 870w on PSU Calculators from Newegg or elsewhere, roughly, but that doesn't fully factor peripherals or room to expand or upgrade?

As well, thanks to use as an editing workstation, maxed out 100% CPU/GPU for prolonged periods is likely when transcoding footage and rendering projects.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I wasn't going to comment, but I'll mention this. If your actual (*calculated) wattage for your new rig is 870W, and you're running that on a 1000W-rated PSU, then it seems to me that due to the ratings of the individual components inside the PSU, that if you instead opted for the 1600W PSU, that the PSU would run cooler internally due to beefier-spec internal components, and thus last longer.

 

[dsc106]

Thank you for commenting. I was wondering along the same lines, that a benefit of the 1600 would be I'm only ever running at 30% to 60% at most power draw, thus reducing heat and being "easier" on the PSU in the long run. As well, without any worries on expandability and adding intelligent features as well.

Does seem overkill, though, but perhaps there are in fact a few benefits regardless then?

 

[Ricky T]

If you are spending all that money on the new rig then you might as well go big on the power supply.

 

[Guru]

You might as well buy a new PSU, I'd not trust a 5+ years old PSU with a new expensive component or a whole new system. I mean sure I have several mid tier psu's that are still working after 5 and more years, and can handle mid tier gpu's, but if I was to put a rtx3080 or rx 6800xt in my pc, Id definitely upgrade to a good quality psu!

 

[AMD Die Hard]

I have a corsair HX1050 powering a i7 4770k and a 1070ti that has been going for 7 years now. They do make a decent power supply.

EDIT - A month after this post the PS started making a strange noise. Still, 7 years seems like a fair run for a power supply. No great, but fair.

 

[Makaveli]

I have like 4 of those, running 2080TI's at 100% load doing DC 24/7/365. Corsair of that ago are great. The only ones I have has die are the 860i and the 1200i. Its seems that the "i" series are garbage.

Edit: I did have an RM100x go bad, and it took out my motherboard, but I got as "damage" RMA, and they not only replaced the PSU but gave me a fair amount for the motherboard. I had one AX850 die, and it did not hurt anything else.

I have switched to EVGA though.

I still have a AX750 model in my old i7-970 build that is going strong that was also 7 year warranty.

For my current build I went with a 2019 AX850 10 year warranty instead of reusing the old one but these psu's are high quality.

 

[CP5670]

I think these 3080 cards with three 8-pin plugs are more of a marketing thing, it's way over a 3080's power draw unless OC'd with exotic cooling. Even many of the 3090s have only two. It might be like all the motherboards that have 8+4-pin EPS plugs, which is also overkill over the 8-pin alone in 99% of cases. I have a Corsair 850W that lets me use either 4x 8-pin PCIE or 2x 8-pin PCIE + 4/8-pin second EPS, but not both at once.

 

[dsc106]

Thanks everyone, I decided to upgrade the PSU to be safe and snagged the Corsair ax1600i.

I was planning the ax1000, but with the factory OC'ed RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra power draw, plus all of my internal SATA drives, I just didn't want to cut it close, and 150w didn't feel like much of an upgrade. I may want to expand this rig in the future to a threadripper setup with even more peripherals, and newer cpu/gpu power draws only seem to be creeping upward, so now I'll never have to sweat it.

I'll continue to use the ax850 in my secondary build (3930k + 1080 TI) which will retire to the home theater for intermittent use. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

[Borealis7]

for Video cards, what i usually do is check the highest power consumption scenario (for instance Here), divide by 12 (volts) and thats the sum of Amperes needed on all rails going to the card.
for instance: 400W / 12v = 33.33A. (note: i dont subtract 75W for the PCIe slot, just to be on the safe side)
therefore, you need to make sure all 12V rails that go to the video card combined have more than 33.33A (which most PSUs can do easily even on a single rail).

next, make sure your total system power draw will not exceed 80% of your PSUs power output.
so for a system that draws on full load: 400W(gpu) + 250W(cpu) + 50W(mobo) + more W (memory, disks, RGBs, whatever...), a 1000W PSU would be enough, if it can provide the 12V rails with enough Amperes.