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Here's the deal, someone just bought a new Gigabyte Geforce 660 TI and it has a 6pin and 8pin power slot on it, said person does not have an 8pin PCI-E on their PSU only 3 6pin PCI-E and a spare 8 pin marked CPU. Other then simply buying a new PSU what options would you first consider or try? Most cards come with adapters so to keep this interesting let's say this one came with x2/4pin to 6pin adapters.

Now let's say that said person is you! WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I'd buy a new PSU. A video card needing a 6-pin /and/ an 8-pin will require lots of electricity that an older PSU without those plugs might not be able to deliver safely, even with adapters.

for the sake of arguement lets say you just bought the PSU less than a month ago, a nice $150 750w Corsair PSU but you screwed up and it doesn't have an 8pin PCI-E which you need for your brand new gfx card, would you still accept the loss and buy a new PSU?

Just plug two six-pins in, it will be fine! Any 350W PSU or higher that isn't complete garbage can power a 660Ti, and you will probably find that the card doesn't even notice the lack of an 8-pin.

The 660Ti only needs around 135W at stock speeds. I've powered many greedier cards with the Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU - It's a popular unit because it's both good and cheap, coming practically free in a variety of Antec NSK cases I often build with. It has only 2x 6-pin PCI-e power connectors.

What Crispy_ said. If not, and you or your 'friend' have to be a perfectionist about it, get an adaptor cable like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812706013 (not necessarily that exact one, just a 6-pin to 8-pin one.)

After you plug in the 2 6 pin connectors you do have then use a car battery and some jumper cables to power the 2 open power slots left

Joking..................just do what crispy says until you get the 6 pin to 8 pin adapter.

My Overkill corsair tx850 has 4 6/8 pin PCI-e power connectors

vargis14 wrote:

After you plug in the 2 6 pin connectors you do have then use a car battery and some jumper cables to power the 2 open power slots left

Not Mr. Fusion?

Seriously, a 2x6pin -> 8-pin PCIe adapter will be good. Next time, if you are not sure of compatibility, check with your fellow gerbils first.

because I don't believe in letting fun end.

The difference between simply plugging another 6pin into the 8pin or using a 2x4pin to 6pin adapter or a 2x6pin to 8pin adapter or simply plugging 2 4pins into it is? GO GO GO
my money's on Chrispy answering first!
EXTRA POINTS to anyone who posts a wattage chart of the different err(brain malfunction) cords/plugs/adapters w.e u wanna call them

Scurvy wrote:

my money's on Chrispy answering first!

I'll PM you my bank details then.

Anyway, the PCI Express slot itself provides up to 75W. This is what cards that don't require a PCI-E power connectors use.
On top of that, a 6-pin connector provides another 75W, and an 8-pin connector provides 150W.

Even if you're only plugging in two 6-pin connectors, the card is being supplied with 225W, which is 75W more than the 660Ti actually needs.

Reality Check:

This is the 245W power consumption of a complete system as tested by TR. That's using an 85% efficient PSU, meaning that with a 245W drain at the wall socket, the entire system running at full whack uses around 200W (that's an X79 motherboard, a power-hungry "130W" Sandy Bridge Extreme, 4 RAM sticks, drives, fans, the GTX 660Ti and probably some silly lights too).

In other news, my first GTX460 (rated at 150W by Nvidia, just like the 660Ti) came with a single 6-pin socket. Go figure....

Extra points (page is chock-full of incredibly nerdy charts on wattage/current/pinout of the various PCI-E power connectors)