Can the PCIe port get damaged if a GPU is installed but not plugged into the PSU?
>>56034662
it's theoretically possible for a card that was really poorly engineered, like even more so than RX 480s or the old GTX 480s/580s.
You'd basically have to have an array of VRMs whose inputs tied together the 12V lines from the mobo and the PSU connector, though, which I would expect to almost certainly violate PCIe design specs.
Otherwise, the VRM controller would be capped at pulling the ~75W limit from the slot, and it would most likely take more than double draw that to actually begin damaging the motherboard.
>>56034823
OK because my card died. In what I thought was testing, I unplugged the GPU from the PSU but not the motherboard. The GPU caught fire a little bit.
>>56034974
It died first, and then I did the unplugging thing