Don’t you worry — I get your situation.
“You’re looking for a definitive guide on how to connect multiple GPUs to a single PSU”.
And most likely, you want to do it for mining. As a rule of thumb, the more graphics power you have, the more dollars your mining rig will make you. So, really, how to connect multiple GPUs to a PSU? That we’ll find out in a moment.
In fact, I assure you that this, right here, is the most definitive guide on multi GPU mining on the internet. After you go through it, you’ll have complete information regarding multi GPU mining and GPU installation — like a pro!
So, let’s dive in.
How to Connect Multiple GPUs to PSU? Step By Step
Below are the steps to building a multi GPU mining setup:
Devise a Plan
Just like all aspects of our lives, planning is important for multi GPU rig building too.
“How many GPUs am I going to connect to the mining rig? How much power will they consume? Do I have enough budget to purchase all the hardware parts to build such a multi-rig setup I’m willing to?”
Ask yourself all these questions before building a mining rig.
The major thing to note during planning is the amount of GPUs you want to put together. It will impact what kind of power supply, motherboard, and budget you’ll need.
If you’re willing to connect 2 GPUs — kudos to you because this is the most recommended option for beginners. But if you’re an advanced miner and willing to go over 4 GPUs, that’s also fine.
But if you want to go beyond that point, well, be ready for advanced and tricky configurations, limitations, and issues. To be clear, a mining rig of more than 4 GPUs is not very easy to manage, and maintain.
Decide on Which GPUs You’ll Use
As a rule of thumb, quality matters too alongside quantity. So, which GPU models are you going to use?
Firstly, although you may be able to connect different types of GPU too, it’s recommended to get multiple GPUs of the same model. However, below are the most recommended GPUs for mining setups:
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.
- AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090.
- AMD Radeon RX 580.
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER.
Pick a Suitable PSU (Power Supply)
Deciding on what level of power supply you need doesn’t have to be hard. It heavily depends upon which GPUs you’re going to put together.
For instance, GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER comes with the recommendation of a 450-watt power supply.
Firstly, you’re not going to use a single one of such a GPU, right?
And secondly, note that where 450 watts is recommended, the people behind the recommendation have also taken the PC case, motherboard, and other hardware parts that consume power into account.
So, to be clear, the GPU might actively not use more than 150 watts.
With that in mind, suppose that you’re going to use 4 GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER cards. If each consumes 150 watts, it makes a total of 600 watts.
To determine a power supply, leave some power overhead and go for a higher supply like 800 watts — with 1000 watts being the recommendation for GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER cards.
That said, you can also use Newegg’s power supply calculator to get an idea of what power supply you should go for.
Also, you can head over to a colleague and try measuring the power needs of their mining rigs to get an idea of what you should expect. Learn how to measure power consumption in amps on a gaming PC with our definitive guide.
Pick a Compatible Motherboard
What sort of motherboard to go for also depends upon how many graphics cards you’ll put together.
For instance, if you’re willing to use 4 GPUs, a motherboard that supports 4 GPUs might be enough — but not recommended.
Instead, if you’re a big-level player in mining, you should rather go for a future-proof motherboard that supports up to 10 GPUs.
In fact, the professional mining GPUs even come with the support of up to 19 GPUs.
When choosing a motherboard for purchase, make sure to keep your budget, requirements, and future needs in mind.
Also, you should know that not all motherboards support powerful GPUs. Learn how you can make sure the motherboard you pick is compatible with the GPUs with our guide on how to check motherboard compatibility with the graphics cards.
Pick Other Hardware Parts
As a rule of thumb, you might need other hardware parts to complete your mining rig. These include the CPU, the RAM, and the storage.
Concerning the CPU, you don’t necessarily need the highest-end CPU coming with dozens of cores. In fact, just a good CPU is all you need. A good option would be not to go below 6th generation and choose from Core i5- core i9 or equivalent AMD CPU.
Also, since your goal is mining, it’s recommended to choose a CPU with higher efficiency to get a good performance without much electricity consumption. To save up some bucks, you can also go for a second-hand CPU on the market.
When it comes to RAM, you don’t need much of it for a mining rig. In fact, 4GB – 8GB RAM works well for mining. However, it’s recommended to use a minimum of two slots of RAM rather than a single for performance purposes.
Regarding storage, of course, you’re not going to need a ton of storage space in a mining rig.
However, for the system to boot up in double-quick and remain active & fast, it’s important to install a good type of storage. And by a good type, I mean an SSD. You can go for any type: a SATA SSD, an NVMe SSD, or a PCIe NVMe SSD.
Whichever SSD you pick, be sure not to go for less than 80 GB of storage space since Windows alone might consume a lot of it.
Plus, there are some programs you may want to run. So, ideally, a minimum of 80 GB SSD storage is recommended.
Deciding on Rig Structure
See, how you want your mining gig to look — in a case or without it — all depends upon how many GPUs you want to put. A PC case might work best if you’re going to use a single GPU or pair up two of them.
But if you’ve decided to go beyond that, it’s recommended not to use a PC case for space and overheating issues.
That said, you might be wondering what’s a good temperature for GPUs. Learn all about that with our definitive guide on what is hot for a GPU?
To be clear, you can still use a PC case but the extra GPUs other than two will have to remain outside the case using the riser cable. But it’s certainly not a recommended way.
Also, if you’re planning on installing two GPUs on your PC, it’s recommended to use blower-style GPUs. This kind of graphics card throws the air outside the case directly. It helps you to avoid overheating with two GPUs in a case.
But if you want to bypass the idea of a PC case, you can build your own mining rig. Other than that, with the crypto mining trend going up exponentially, more crypto mining rigs are available on the market than ever.
Where to Buy All This Stuff?
Of course, you’d like to get everything at the best price possible. But looking for the best value for your money isn’t easy.
Where to purchase computer parts depends upon where you live. If you have big computer markets in your city, you can surely visit them and see if you can find some great hardware parts at a low price.
Remember, going for a used CPU, RAM, or SSD isn’t bad overall — as long as you’re getting them in a good condition and of course a good price value.
But if you’ve got a good budget and wouldn’t want to sacrifice quality, purchasing new parts is also fine.
Other than the offline market, you can try out the popular online marketplaces around, to find yourself some amazing deals. A good example might be the Facebook marketplace.
Last but not the least, you can simply use one of the online stores to get hardware for your mining rig:
- Amazon
- TechBargains
- Slickdeals
- com
- com
- Micro Center
Other than the international stores, also give your local ones a try — who knows if you land a good bargain there.
Also, the point to note is, GPU prices are going pretty high lately. There are many reasons for that. However, learn about when they’ll get normal with our detailed guide on when GPU prices drop.
Now, How to Connect Multiple GPUs to a PSU?
Well, below are the detailed steps you can follow to put together your multi-GPU mining rig.
Assembly of Your Multi-GPU Rig
First thing’s first, assemble the motherboard into the CPU case. If you’re not using a case, put and tighten up the motherboard wherever you want to keep it.
Also, install the CPU, CPU heatsink, and fan (or another cooling system you may be using) as well as other hardware parts like RAM and hard drive.
Wherever you put the motherboard, make sure it’s non-conductive or the motherboard could fry out due to electric surges.
Once all is set up, it’s time to put together your motherboard with the PSU. You can simply install it into the PC case or alternatively put it somewhere suitable if you’re going with an open rig.
If you’re not sure how to:
- Install PSU
- Install CPU
- Install RAM
- Install Hard drives
Then you can learn these easy things on the internet.
That said, wherever you place the power supply, try to keep the power supply between the motherboard and GPUs (if you’re going to connect them using rizer cables). This will help to ensure a good electric setup.
Once you have it all set up and put together, it’s time to power up your computer. If you’re using a PC case, simply press the power button.
Otherwise, figure out how to touch both power pins on the motherboard. In most cases, a screwdriver works well. Just make sure whichever object you choose is metal.
Windows Installation
If your computer is set up and ready to run, it’s time to install Windows. Not sure how to do that? Well, either watch an online tutorial or simply consult an expert. After you’ve installed Windows on your computer, it’s time to turn your PC back off.
Installation of the GPUs
Now, install all the GPUs you’ve got using riser cables and connect them to the power supply. However, it’s recommended to install 1-2 graphics cards on the motherboard, and then if you have more, you can use riser infrastructure for them.
For the installation of riser GPUs, it’s highly recommended to choose a suitable location for them. Firstly, make sure they remain out of the reach of children.
This is because multi-GPU setups are sensitive and problems in one GPU can get your entire mining rig down.
Image Credits: mining chamber
Another important point to note down is the power requirements of the GPU risers you use. Make sure to do proper research and only use compatible and suitable power connectors.
For instance, using an average power connector like 75 watts wouldn’t be recommended for high-end GPUs at all. It could fry the GPU out right away as well as damage other parts of your mining rig.
This is one of the big reasons people don’t go for more than 4 GPUs on a rig. Where it helps to keep the setup and configurations easy and convenient, it also makes way for better protection.
Don’t have the know-how of how a GPU is installed? Learn it step by step with our detailed guide on how to install a new graphics card.
Furthermore, if the GPUs you’ve placed on in the PC case or outside seem to be sagging, you should definitely fix that issue. Learn all about that with our guide on how much GPU sag is too much. It also lays down some easy ways to fix GPU sag.
Checking if the GPUs Are Working
Once all the GPUs are properly installed and provided power from the PSU, it’s time to boot up your computer.
Connect the display cable to any GPU on the motherboard and run the computer.
If you don’t get any display, don’t worry, simply switch the display cables between different GPUs and see which one works. This way, you might be able to get a display on your monitor.
Once you’ve got the display, let the computer start. Please note that it can take a considerable amount of time since the computer has to detect many GPUs and get them to work. To be clear, it took 10 minutes for our tests.
After the computer has booted up, follow the steps below:
- Go to device manager by using Windows search
- Click the dropdown of display adapters
- Your installed GPUs might appear here
If all your cards are appearing here, hurray, you’ve nearly made it to building a multi-GPU mining rig. But if they’re not, try reconnecting the GPUs or troubleshooting.
Configuring GPUs With MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner is an amazing tool to make tweaks to your graphics cards. The best part? You can do it individually with MSI Afterburner.
Anyway, it’s recommended to set the power to TPD (power)to 65-75% and the fan speed to 75%. You can also adjust the fan speed depending upon what sort of environment you’ve got. Either way, it should be adjusted to maintain the temperature below 60-65C.
After you’ve successfully made these changes, restart the computer. Now, to test if the GPUs work fine for long-term operations, leave the computer running for an entire night or a day. If everything goes well, it’s time to celebrate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the answers to frequent queries regarding how to connect multiple GPUs to a PSU.
Can you use 2 different GPUs at once?
Yes, you can. But there’s a difference between using the cards as CrossFire or SLI. The GPUs work coordinately to deliver a great performance. On the other hand, using two different GPUs makes them work independently of each other. So, you won’t be able to use them together for a better graphics rendering.
How much PSU do I need for 2 GPUs?
How much power supply you need to power up 2 GPUs depends upon the type of GPUs you have. For instance, GPUs like the GTX 1050ti won’t consume much power compared to the GTX 3080 ti. However, the general idea is to go for around 800 watts for two GPUs.
Is it worth mining with one GPU?
Mining cryptocurrencies with a single GPU is possible and profitable. However, if you’re willing to turn crypto mining into a passive income or make huge profits out of mining, tht won’t be possible. That’s why experts use many (sometimes, dozens of) GPUs for crypto mining. But starting with a single GPU is still fine.
Can I use AMD and NVIDIA cards together?
Yes, you can put together AMD and Nvidia GPUs and use them at once. However, note that since you’ll have to install different graphics programs for both providers, it could cause compatibility issues. So, it’s recommended only to use SLI or Crossfire to pair up GPUs.
How many GPUs Can the motherboard support?
How many GPUs a motherboard can support simply depends upon the number of PCIe ports it contains. Average motherboards come with the ability to hook up 2 GPUs or more. With powerful mining motherboards, you can even pair up over 20 GPUs.
Key Takeaways
To sum all the points up, below are the key answers to “how to connect multiple GPUs to a PSU?”:
- The first step to creating a multi-GPU rig is to plan on how many GPUs you’re going to put together
- Once you’ve decided how many GPUs to use, pick a suitable PSU, compatible motherboard, and other hardware parts accordingly
- Also, determine whether you’re going to use a PC case or build an open rig
- The best places to buy hardware include Amazon, other online stores, and your local sellers
- To connect multiple GPUs to a PSU, you will have to use riser infrastructure
- Simply assemble all the parts of your rig except GPUs, install Windows, and then install GPUs
- Turn your PC on and configure the GPUs for a good fan speed, temperature, and power consumption, and that’s it
