Sapphire HD 4890: 6pin + 8pin required?

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Nihilanth99

2[H]4U
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Aug 28, 2002
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I just purchased a mundane HD 4890 from Sapphire, and was surprised to see not only a blue PCB, but a 6+8 set of power connectors instead of the 6+6 I was expecting. The surprising part was that the package only came with two 4-pin-Molex to 6-pin-PCIE adapters. This leads me to believe that it's fine to run the GPU simply with a 6+6 arrangement, but to what extent?

Google searches have lead me to believe that it's fine to run the card in a 6+6 configuration, yet have also indicated that 6+8 is required for Sapphire's overclocked SKUs for operation. Help!

Thanks.
 
Same thing happened to me with a pair of XFX 4890s.

I tried using two 6 pin connections and I got a big red warning saying I did not connect the correct plugs (something to that effect).

It seems an 8 pin connection is required. At least with the vanilla 4890s I got from XFX.

Mine also only came with two 6 pin adapters and no 8 pin adapter.

It seems they did some revision with the card that changed it from two 6 pin connectors to a 6 and 8 pin connector, but never bothered updating the accessories they ship the cards with.
 
Well i could run my 4890 with just the two 6 pin connectors, my psu had 2 anyway, i tested the card with a 8 pin connector and there was no performance difference.
 
Just rig up a ground wire out of your 6 pin adapter.
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the 8 pin i believe is mostly for overclocking if you are going to do voltage changes on it to hit the 1ghz mark on the gpu you will probably want the 8 pin connected..
 
My XFX 4890 (reference setup) had 2x6 pin connectors. It doesn't make a difference really with my PSU as all the 6 pins have an additional 2 pins that can make then into 8 pins, but it is weird that their are differences.
 
Ugh. I'll order a 6 to 8 converter later today from Performance-PCs. To Sapphire,

youretardsc.jpg
 
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Call them up and say "wtf." Most companies will overnight the cables to you.
 
Mr. K6 said:
Call them up and say "wtf." Most companies will overnight the cables to you.
Click to expand...

I doubt a company is going to spend more on shipping than the cable itself costs. Lolz overnight even with usps is like 20 dollars. Lol if you figure they buy a couple thousand at a time cable probably is like a dollar or 50 cents.

Oh and ya it does suck about the 8pin.
 
The good news is that Sapphire will be sending me an 8-pin adapter tomorrow. Not overnight, but I'm thankful nonetheless for the quick support.
 
@Nihilanth99 lol. Nice pic!

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Nothing wrong with wiring up the two extra pins. Corsair does it too.

 
DTN107 said:
@Nihilanth99 lol. Nice pic!

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Nothing wrong with wiring up the two extra pins. Corsair does it too.

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It's fine if the manufacturer does it since they know those 3 yellow wires running to the 6pin can carry 150watts if need be. It's sometimes an issue with using a 6pin to 8pin adapter if the psu was designed to only do 75watts through that 6pin. The 4890 it's fine since the card isn't gonna pull much more than 75watts since the other revisions only have two 6pins.

Basically if you got a 4870x2 or a gtx 295 don't even try to use an adapter if you got a shitty ultra power supply or something. The tdp for a 295 is like 289w and the 4870x2 is in same neighborhood.
 
To conclude this thread, I can say that if you find yourself in this situation, contact Sapphire immediately. I contacted them, they had the part in the mail after two days, and I had it in my hand the day after that. Quite a nice support experience if I do say so myself.
 
Mega0v said:
I doubt a company is going to spend more on shipping than the cable itself costs. Lolz overnight even with usps is like 20 dollars. Lol if you figure they buy a couple thousand at a time cable probably is like a dollar or 50 cents.

Oh and ya it does suck about the 8pin.
Click to expand...
Customer satisfaction > minor cost. Besides, most large scale companies have shipping deals with at least one carrier.
Nihilanth99 said:
To conclude this thread, I can say that if you find yourself in this situation, contact Sapphire immediately. I contacted them, they had the part in the mail after two days, and I had it in my hand the day after that. Quite a nice support experience if I do say so myself.
Click to expand...
As it should be. Glad to hear you got it all settled :cool:
 
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