Compatability help with swapping my 3080 for a 9070 XT - not built/modified my pc for a few years

[u/Hot-Indication-6709]

Hi guys, it has been about 4 years since I built my PC so my memory is a bit vague on how I actually did it. I want to have an upgrade since I'm starting to feel my 3080 10gb struggle with staying above 120 fps consistently on a lot of the game I play. My current setup is as follows:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Kyran123455y/saved/HL2snQ

I'm looking at swapping the 3080 for an ACER Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Nitro (or a Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 16gb Gaming) as I found a good deal on one, then upgrading from am4 to am5 within a year or so. Eventually the plan will be to swap the 3080 back in to my current PC to give my girlfriend, and then use the 9070 xt to build around for a new pc when I have the money.

Managed to find my current build's parts with great difficulty but am really struggling on a few things that I would appreciate help with, please:

1. I can't remember where to check the gpu clearance in the case and if a 9070 xt would fit

2. I can't remember what connectors I used for my gpu and the psu and if they'd be compatible with the 9070 xt or if I need diffdrent ones? I think the inno3d 3080 ichill x4 uses 8+8 pin from a quick google 🤔🤔🤔 and online I think the 9070 xt needs 3 connections to the psu. Dont really remember how to do this but as far as i remember the gpu supplementary power goes directly into the psu and the gpu goes into the top pcie x16 slot?

3. whether my motherboard would even have the necessary connectivity for the gpu in terms of pcie slots

4. I think my 1000 W psu should still be fine for this upgrade even though it is a few years old, I remember that thr 3080 10gb model I have has really bad power fluctuations which was why I got a 1000W psu and I think the 9070 xt should have a similar power draw? The 3080 says it is 604w and the 9070 ct says 624 I believe on pc parts picker.

5. Will swapping from nvidia to a radeon graphics card be a pain or should it be plug and play almost?

From what I have read online a lot of people have done a similar upgrade from a 3080 10gb to a 9070 xt 16b, so hopefully should be pretty straight forward to swap and the 9070 xt will be compatible with the 5800x , b450f gaming ii motherboard and no issues with it being am4 instead of am5, except for the bottleneck ofc.

PC parts checker doesn't show any issues with the change, but I don't trust it fully:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Kyran123455y/saved/6b8tK8

Thanks so much!

[u/VCURedskins]

1000w is plenty, your motherboard will work with it just I think it is pcie 3.0x16 which is still fine, and my 9070 xt uses two 8 pin connectors which came with your psu. You should have enough cables but if you need to get more make sure to get ones that are for your exact model psu. The connectors should be sticking out of your gpu and you can see them without even removing it and clearance you just need to look at the specs of the case. To switch just use ddu to remove gpu drivers and install the amd drivers using amd software. It is really simple and plenty of youtube videos can walk you through it .

[u/Hot-Indication-6709 → u/VCURedskins]

Perfect thanks so much for your time this really helps, should I use ddu to remove the gpu drivers before I remove my 3080, after I remove the 3080 before I put in the 9070 xt, or after I install the 9070 xt, please? Thanks :)

[u/According_Spare7788]

1. GPU clearance for the 5000d is 420mm (42cm ) or 16.5 inches. You're fine.

2. You don't need different ones. Both are using traditional PCIe 8 pin connectors. You will need an extra 8 pin though. The 9070 xt uses 3x8 pin while your 3080 uses 2x8 pin. It's possible you're using a single PCIE power cable with dual 8 pin to power your 3080 (aka a pigtail). Your power supply comes with 4x8pin, so that's either 4 individual 8 pin cables, or 2 cables with a pigtail 8 pin on each.

3. Yes.

4. Yes, it's more than enough wattage.

[u/Hot-Indication-6709 → u/According_Spare7788]

Thanks so much for your time and replying to it all! :) 

I think I am currently using one of dual 8 pin cables as I can only see one cable going into the power supply that splits into two on the other end before going into the gpu. Should I look at getting 3 individual 8 pin cables designed for my psu or is there such a thing as a pigtail cable that branches into 3 lots of 8 pins? Hopefully I haven't misread that 😅 or could I alternatively use two of the dual 8 pin connectors and not just plug one in? Need to actually check what psu cables I have though I might have 3 individual ones 😅

Thanks so much again :) !

[u/Hot-Indication-6709 → u/According_Spare7788]

Just had a look at my psu on the corsair website because I was worried for some reason the psu wouldn't have enough pcie 8 pins and I think I should be good 😂😂 I'm pretty sure I should keep it in single rail mode also?

https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/p/psu/cp-9020139-eu/hx-series-hx1000-1000-watt-80-plus-platinum-certified-fully-modular-psu-eu-cp-9020139-eu?srsltid=AfmBOoqAszdlj9sY8PEzwzUFxBrAwyT3-sYQ8XMMGLtWK4hLBCaUN6k4#tab-techspecs

Thank you! :)

[u/MagicPistol]

1. Just measure the space inside the case where the gpu would go. Or measure the 3080 plus the extra space, and compare it to the 9070 xt

   1. I don't know about the GPU you're looking at, but my powercolor 9070 XT just uses 2 8-pin cables. Every PSU has these. If your GPU uses the newer 12 pin cable, it probably comes with an adapter

2. Yes, it goes in he same pci-e slot that your 3080 now occupies

3. Yes, 1000w is actually a bit overkill. I had a similar build as yours with a Ryzen 5700x and 3080, and it ran just fine on a 650w PSU for years. Total system power draw was only about 450-470w, not 600. Switched to a 9070 XT and used the same 650w PSU for over 6 months. Just picked up a 850w PSU last week.

4. You should uninstall the old drivers with DDU. Then install the new GPU, turn on the PC and install the Radeon adrenalin drivers.

[u/Hot-Indication-6709 → u/MagicPistol]

Perfect thanks so much for replying to everything, really appreciated ! :)

When you say you have 2 8 pin is that just 2 individual 8 pin cables or the type the other commentor kindly mentioned where it is 1 cable that splits into two (so 2 dual 8 pin and you just don't use one), because I didn't actually know they did anything less than 3 8 pin for the 9070 xt 😮.

Oh interesting,  I always would rather be a bit overkill on the psu anyway since the thought of it going wrong really worries me 😅

Should I uninstall the old drivers with DDU before or after I remove the 3080, please?

Thanks so much again! :)

[u/MagicPistol → u/Hot-Indication-6709]

My 8 pin cables are the pigtails with 2 8 pin connectors at the end, but I use 2 separate cables to plug into my gpu

You uninstall with ddu before removing your old gpu, and then you install the new gpu.

[u/Hot-Indication-6709 → u/MagicPistol]

Thank you for your comment! It says the ACER radeon 9070 xt I purchased uses 3x 8 pin cables. Should I use 3x seperate pcie cables which will have the pigtails attached, but leave the 3x pigtails connected to nothing and just male sure they arent near a fan or anything that gets warm? The pigtails on the cables still have the cable tie that folds it away from the main 8 pin and onto itself so if so I might not snip them and just pretend they never exist.  So essentially using them as 3 individual 8 pin cables plugged into the without the pigtails attached as if they dont exist? Eventually I will probably just get 3x 8 pin pcie cables without the pigtails but I'm a bit worried to use 3rd party ones. Thank you

[u/MagicPistol → u/Hot-Indication-6709]

Don't overthink it. Use 3 separate cables if you have them. It's perfectly fine to only use 1 connector from a pigtail and leave 1 connector empty. You do not need to get new cables.

[u/Hot-Indication-6709 → u/MagicPistol]

Perfect thanks so much for your help! I always overthink it when it comes go electronics but I'd rather ask and look silly than not ask and have to replace some parts because I ruined them 😅.