Which point? The adapter? There’s no dispute. It’ll work to deliver power but it won’t give you the extra features provided by the 4 pin on an ATX 3.0
I made that clear two posts ago. Apologies you got confused. You’re welcome too
My understanding is those extra 4 sense pins on top of the 12pin PCIe connector allow for better GPU power management and potentially better performance from AD10x GPU's
Speaking for myself, it's the route I would go if I was planning to upgrade my PSU. My PSU's typically last through two...
I mean... yes, but not in a meaningful way 80+ Gold for example is rated for 90% efficiency at 50% but you still get at least 87% efficiency at 100% load. The efficiency difference between 50 and say 70-80% load which still gives you plenty of headroom is probably closer to 1%
I don't think PCI4 will make any appreciable difference with either of those cards TBH. You'd have been better off buying something second hand. 1650 is a pretty anemic gaming card.
There's no magic bullet to stress test a GPU, there's also no guarantee that it's the GPU causing the crash and not instability elsewhere in the system.
The machine in question runs QuickBooks where I do my invoicing and occasional HTPC duties. The company file is stored on the SSD but also backed up to another drive as well as having a cloud based backup. Loss of the drive will not be detrimental and will not cause any consequential data loss...