Limitations of unpowered PCI-E 1x to 16x Riser cables

[Dervana]

Hi there,

I've seen people saying that you shouldn't overload unpowered riser cables (PCI-E x1 >>> PCI-E x16) by using high demand graphics cards.

I have a 5750 and a 5780 which I'll probably avoid utilising in this way, but I was wondering would a 7950 be ok, as overall requirements of this card seem to be much lower than the other two? Or does it just come down to the quality of the riser cable? I'm in the UK and can't seem to find powered riser cables for a reasonable price.

Thanks in advance for any answers and for all the help that has already been dispensed in these forums, I'm new to the mining world, but have managed to learn a lot quickly with the help of these forums.

Dervana

[burnred81]

my 2x 5970 works fine on riser cables and they are not power savvy

[lbr]

1) pcie provides +12v, the more cards you have the more strain you put on motherboard.
2) unpowered riser - the longer the cable, the more resistance, more rsistance, more heat - burns)

powered risers solve those 2 issues.

[Dervana]

Thanks for the answers.

I might try the 5870 in the x16 slot and the 5850 on an unpowered riser. The board that these cards are on is kinda crappy and old, but I guess that's not much of an issue. The power going in is coming from a Corsair HX850 Pro HX Gold+, so it's clean power (if that matters at all).

[peonminer]

I'm using 4 X 7950

Two 16x to 16x risers, both powered.

Two 1x to 16x risers, not powered.

No issues yet!

Relieves some of the load from your MoBo. Use some if possible. the 58XX card on an unpowered should be fine though.