ASUS has created a new graphics card design that uses a proprietary PCB connector for power delivery instead of connecting to a power supply. The folks over at Wccftech spotted the new design while taking a tour at the ASUS HQ. The demo concept card is an RTX 4070 which is said to be 2.3 slots wide and does not have any of the traditional ASUS branding such as Strix, TUF, etc. ASUS ROG recently teased an upcoming graphics card unveiling over the weekend and that card, while bearing no resemblance to this one, was also missing any branding besides the ASUS logo.
Front to Back
ASUS showed off the new graphics card alongside a custom Z790 TUF Gaming ATX motherboard sporting a matching slot for the connector which is temporarily being called “GC_HPWR”. The similarity to 12VHPWR is intentional as the new connector is rated for 600 Watts as well. The new connector purposely replaces the 12VHPWR connector, or any 8-pins for that matter meaning cables are no longer needed for the GPU. Although most would cringe at the thought of a proprietary design many would celebrate no longer having to deal with cables for their GPU but, unfortunately, the same connectors have now been moved to the motherboard instead.
ASUS has moved all power connectors, including 3x 8-pin and a 12VHPWR, to the backside of this demo Z790 TUF Gaming ATX motherboard. This means that cases would also have to be designed in order to provide access to them. There are obviously pros and cons to such a design. On one hand, the front of the motherboard will primarily only have components such as CPU, memory, GPU, and NVMe drives making a clean build fairly easy. On the other, builders will need to plan for having all their cables behind the motherboard.
ASUS has said that it plans to market motherboards and graphics cards featuring the new design globally later this year. It did not provide pricing but did add that they would be priced higher than their standard counterparts in order to account for the increased manufacturing costs associated with the custom design.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →But..... why?
It's not a bad idea, but it does lock you completely into the Asus ecosystem. The end result would look clean and sharp, and moves all those cables out of the way and out of the path of air flow.
Asus is big, but I don't know if they are big enough to drive this by themselves. It might gain some traction if it were paired with ATX12VO from Intel (which I also think is a good idea, although I realize that isn't a universal opinion around here) - if you are the one making the motherboard and PSU, after all...
While the GPU slot is new, putting everything on the back of the miotherboard is not, MSI and Gigabyte have both already done it, not sure if it is a succes but seeing more companies are doing it, there must be a market for it.
Not catching fire?
Doubtful since not many really are melting. They keep trying to bring this back to be a real problem.
Sure, but now they are piping an extra 400+ watts through the motherboard? All they did was move the power connectors to the back of the motherboard.... so melty cables still gonna melt right?
That is true.
Odd that it has both 3x8-pin and a 12VHPWR
So AMD and olders cards can play too.
Got here too late to do their HQ tour... Meeting at their booth tomorrow - will try to get more info...
Doesn't the card have to plug into the proprietary motherboard socket though? So would it matter if it's AMD or nVidia then?
Those would plug in the card as they do now, no need for back connectors for those, it's probably so you can keep your current PSU
If it is isolated with enough clearance from low power circuits that should not be a problem.
Depends in the implementation, how well the cable is retained by the connector. The problem I see is people trying to jam it into cases not designed for it, bending or breaking cables. At least it's a $500 MB that melts and not a $2000 GPU, right? ?
In case your PSU doesn't have a HP connector, just regular PCIE ones.
"Oh, only a handful of Pintos explode when being rear ended, therefore it is not a real problem"
I was thinking about this too. Out of sight, out of mind is great but then the back of the case often has less space than the front and we all know that the 12VHPWR needs clearance before the bend. If someone makes a nice, short, stout, cable with a right angle that could be a great solution but otherwise I'd be worried about the bend. Basically, the cure-all for this design is that it has to come with its own right-angle 12VHPWR cables so the user doesn't have to source them.