I bought a high quality Corsair PSU with the card. I just didn't have three PCIE cables and had to go get a third, that's all. The PSU is great.

Probably the smallest Corsair PSU... else i got no clue why there is only 2 PCIE cables. It doesnt matter if your PSU is from Corsair as long as the PSU simply got insufficient power.

Corsair is a good brand, but that doesnt mean that even the cheapest PSUs are made in order to handle a huge GPU, not even from Corsair... they got entry level PSUs aswell.

Finally we just want to help you regarding your issues, so either you may try to give some understanding or okay... you simply let it be your way.

I have not stated any problem with power, not sure why you keep going on about this. I get you're trying to help, but I have no power problem to help with. I was just venting about the difficulties of setting up a high-end card.

Same for me, except that I kinda hate laptops, despite their obvious good portability.
Usually both hardware and software get messed up by the vendors with bloatware, spyware, weird settings, etc.
Then their price is expensive, their cooling system is terrible, speakers are garbage, you'll need external keyboard+monitor for decent peripherals and ergonomics, etc.
And replacing parts with issues is waaay less convenient than desktops.

Look.. it is your PC and you can feel a issue the way you enjoy or simply according to your believes. I have no issue with that. However, for some reason you are posting a lot of stuff that actually looks to me like some kind of power issue... although you seems to dislike this idea.

Think logical: For some reason your PSU had only 2 PCIE cables because either it was not made for more than 2 GPU-cables in mind or you may have lost those cables or some builder did remove those cables... who knows. In general, a PSU got exactly that many PCIE cables available in order to match the maximum possibility it is able to handle. Actually no one knows the exact spec of your PSU (or the rest of the system) and you do not seem to inform us about... for whatever reason.

Do you want a issue solved or simply shouting around a little without realistic solutions possible? I mean it is okay... just inform us about your intent.

Anyway, power issue can mean a lot: It can mean not enough ampere but it could also mean that your system is unable to cool it down; this would be another power issue and this issue is very clearly stated by you.

Finally,... you have to know yourself how to deal with; if you think i am wrong then i can live with. Are you exchanging your card now, or just another vent?

Wow, even an RTX 3070 is so much more high end than what I've got now.
Still, I'm pretty happy with my 10 year old cpu and 6 year old gpu, rarely play anything that needs lot's of computational power anyway.

You might be interested in undervolting your card by the way, AMD is known for cooking up their cards with a lot of extra volts.
This way you use less power and your card get less hot and actually increases performance and lifespan without overclocking the thing.

edit:
Also by the way isn't going from and RTX to a Radeon technically a downgrade as you sacrifice raytracing and DLSS or whatever?

edit:
Nevermind, I see you're getting an RTX 4070.

In all honesty I don't think high end cards are worth it even when you got the money.
They're bulky use lots of power, driver shenanigans and lots of side issues.
Personally I've used both AMD and Nvidia but never the high end stuff and always cards that were well established by then (driver reliability). Can't really say I prefer one over the other.

I've had basically a reverse trajectory to this, I used to just buy new pcs because I was more timid about doing repair work myself, especially replacing thermal paste, but after doing work on friends' and family's throwaway computers I am a lot more excited to work on my own.

I got way to many games, there is not a single game with serious driver issues. Most issues are happening from badly optimized games, a matter neither Nvidia or AMD can do much about. The driver can only do stuff to a certain extend... the true fine tuning is always in the shiny hands of the devs. AMD and Nvidia, both got great drivers today... but i would not place my bid on other GPU manufacturers for PC use.

Aswell can not agree on "AMD cooking up something else". They had some cooler issues on the reference 7000 series, but only the reference design is affected by this issue. The quality is currently nothing to brag about, i feel the 6000 series was a great competitor and the follow up is somewhat lacking. Still, the cards, as long as adequately cooled (i recommend a custom cooler design, for example Sapphire got good stuff) are working fine and there is no need for any undervolting. Especially for 4k, i think there is no card with the same price/performance-ratio such as the 7900 XTX. However, there is a good case with sufficient cooling needed. If someone can not provide enough of cooling a 4070 TI or lower may be more safe but aswell weaker on 4k. Of course, sufficient PSU too. Just do not get reference AMD cards... all what matters.

At 4k and without RT a 7900 XTX can only be beaten by a very expensive 4090. Do not underestimate this card, but be aware that it is a demanding card, indeed.

I guess you're referring to the crashing issue I put in the "it gets hot" section? For some reason that was all about having game bar on with AMD drivers, which is stupid and weird. As was having game bar on, but I reformatted and forgot about it. Anyway no crashes since I turned that off. That's why I say power was not the problem.

I have a Corsair RM1000X, it's fine. I do see it was supposed to come with 3 PCIEs, but it did not (or I lost one). A vent, just part of my frustration. "F**K AMD!!!" and all that. It seems fine now... we shall see.


I have never once found ray tracing to be worth cutting my fps in half (or worse). Also AMD has mostly caught up. AMD has a DLSS competitor called FSR that looks pretty much the same to me on the "quality" setting and I'd never use anything below that.

I think Nvidia does a good job marketing their features as essential but like with Physx before they usually get a shrug from me.

:D
hear hear, i spent soooo much research on dimensions, then the first card I ordered, from another country was sent back!!! due to some vague reasoning, then i found something right up my alley. Watercooling included. Actually was a steal since even with the recent price drops a similar 4080 is still 700 euro's more expensive. So i guess i still have about a year with feeling very satisfied ;)

i hope you manage to find reason too ;D

Yea if you got that Corsair RM1000x, then papa bless you as it's one of the best PSUs out there. It comes with 3x 8-pin modular cables specifically for gpus. They have inline capacitors in them, so use only those for the already mentioned high transient gpus. No idea why yours came with just 2 though and that threw me off guessing which psu you might have. Don't daisy-chain on these kind of gpus as a rule of thumb.

Glad you found the culprit, amd is still releasing drivers mainly for 7000 lineup rather frequently to iron out weird things happening. Next step is undervolting the core. Auto undervolt will get you like 1/3 results of what you can achieve with manual settings. It really does make a difference as all amd gpus come out pretty overvolted out of the factory. Check the airflow, adjust fan curves, close the bay and play some games.

The Corsair RM1000X (2021) should be fine, indeed. It got 6x 8 PIN PCIE for either CPU or GPU. Some boards will need 2x 8 PIN for CPU only, so there is 4x 8 PIN for GPU left still.

If you had a RM850X (850 W) instead (apparently the old one) it could be insufficient because it got only 4x 8 PIN. 2x8 for CPU and 2x8 for GPU, this may become insufficient on many boards. In general 850 W is not safe (minimum is not same as safe or good) for a 7900 XTX, but if you got a 1000 W now, it is certainly "good to use"!

In my mind there is to much "hype" when it comes to undervolting. It sounds to me like "AMD and partners want to be sure it is always stable so they use way to many Volt"... i do not think AMD and partners are that stupid simply to overvolt everything they got, because to much troubles involved with "burned hardware". There are other methods bringing the power down, and with to less Volt the system may become unstable. Less Volt does not automatically mean less power or heat because there is Ampere too. In term the system got a certain power limit but to less Volt, it may simply increase the Ampere to probably critical levels. If you have more Ampere but less Volt the heat is even more critical because the system can handle lesser current at lesser Volt. So, Volt is not a bad thing, it is actually more useful for providing "cool power", than Ampere. The card itself got a power controller (some are great and some rather worse, depends on the PCB-manufacturer) and it will simply adjust the power to the spec given to the power controller. So "external manipulation" does not sound tasty to me, no matter the big hype. Maybe undervolting can be useful on the majority of the cheap cards with bad controller but the good cards with good controller do not need manual adjustment, with the exception of a power limit: The controller will handle the rest. The card will not automatically draw more power because of more Volt, a modern card is not that stupid. However, if there is lesser Volt available and the card will need more power... as long as the power limit is allowing it, it may simply draw the power... even with less Volt... and probably with some difficult issues. Indeed, a hardware can aswell die because of overcurrent (as an effect of to less Volt but to big power demand) not just overvolt. If you manipulate... know your stuff or maybe face the reality.

Anyway, who cares... i tell how i feel and others may simply do what they feel best for them and their system.

The hype comes because on some situations you can get 10 to 30% free performance, this works not only in AMD cards but on nVidia and CPU's as well, laptops with low TDP targets can yeld a lot of performance/battery time/less heat and fan noise.
One of the reasons undervolt works so good on AMD cards is that the cards are run well beyond the efficiency point, not talking about low end and OEM stuff mind you. As an exemple, my late Rx480 was undervolted and underclocked and my whole pc was comsuming 100-120W while playing games and was run on a 300W power supply (20amps n the 12v rail). For 5 to 10% less performance the card used 30 to 50% less power!

It's not dificult and worthwhile, since on newer cards can mean more performance and less heat, win win situation really. Just don't goo too greedy because too much undervolt can cause "random" crashes.

100-120 W while playing games? Hard to believe...

And why are you undervolting exactly? Yes it is true that the system with lesser power may lose maybe 10-15% performance (3090 TI vs. 3090 for example, more performance comes at a cost) but the efficiency will increase by probably 25-50%, this is old knowledge and the reason why a Laptop can have a increased efficiency with the exact same chips (maybe some cherry picking is involved aswell).

However, in general i am not using my system at the maximum load. The load at 60 to 120 Hz for the majority of my games is just about 25-50%, so the card will automatically use way less Watt and not become very hot.

I use V-Sync compatible to my TV, which is nowadays 60 Hz but it will soon increase to 120 Hz (reason why i got me a expensive card... else there would be no need).

Only a handful of games, for example Cyberpunk and the newest Witcher 3 Update, may need the full load of the card but in this case i may actually need the full power and no less than that... even if it comes at the cost of way lower efficiency.

So, it all depends if you actually NEED the power... if you have no use, no matter if you undervolt, use power limit or simply limit your FPS to 60 or 120 Hz... it will always use less power.

I dont know why people just always focus on Volt if in fact the matter is way more complex than that. You have to do power management, dependable on your specific needs.

Stii, a controller is not just "undervolting" unless you are doing it manually. The controller will do the stuff it got to do in order to achieve the requested TDP. With lower TDP the loss in performance may actually be minor, so it may be worth it. Again, if your card never was using the "allowed TDP"... there is not so much use.

Reviews are usually done with full load and in many terms unrealistic because not everyone is using the card at full load. Reason is simple: A card not always at full load got a higher "margin" for smoothen out performance spikes, so you will have the most stable FPS on a "to powerful card". Even more great: A card with huge "free ressources" will just never go down prostrating, this is way more important than having the maximum FPS possible. If i would limit the max power, sure it will be more efficient but if the card truly needs the power limit, maybe only for a few seconds, in order to avoid going down, then i like to be gentle on power. In most cases, the card will never need it... so why to limit it? Dunno...

Reviews are not about being realistic, else who would ever use a huge GPU for 1080P? Just not realistic paying so much for 1080P... this is just populism in order to show you who else got the bigger "oomph", like some sort of show. This is not the reason why i got a 3090 TI, the reason is because it can handle stuff so extremely smooth at locked FPS and under any circumstances, simply the best way to play.

I find it enjoyable comparing my 3090TI while watching a YT Video with my Notebook-GPU from a Surface 7. The 3090 TI is at 210 Mhz clock and no fan is spinning at all, while using almost the same power with about 25% load (extremely low clock) and around 38 W power used (almost no difference...).

In comparison, the Notebook GPU (Intel G7 Iris) is at more than 50% load at full clock and the power draw is increased drastically... because now this in theory extremely efficient GPU is now struggling already with a high power demand, while the totaly overpowered 3090 TI will just stay in Idle and without any FAN running. It will stay well forever... and the "in theory efficient" Intel GPU will probably burn way sooner.

This is the reason why to use powerful stuff... because it got a huge margin without any sweat, increasing stability. Indeed the 3090 TI is hated for its bad effiency... and under many realistic conditions... we actually will become another less distored view about reality.

Ultimately, there is always many reasons why to use a certain card: The 3090 TI from MSI got the advantage vs. 3090 to have all the memory on the front side of the PCB, so the memory can be cooled down way better. Additionally the quality of all parts are supreme; so it can handle more power better than the 3090 and probably with higher endurance. However, reviews usually rarely are telling those important details, so the view is mostly incomplete.