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.