ASUS has announced a new proprietary GPU power connector the company plans on using for all upcoming graphics cards. The company has clearly moved in this direction to try and avoid the nasty power cables you are stuck using on the current hardware. However, this means that you’ll have to pair supported GPUs with supported motherboards going forward.
The new proprietary GPU connector is still in its concept phase but it features no power plugs on the side of the GPU like current models. Instead, the power source is situated next to the PCI-E Gen 4.0 x 16 chip. There’s a three-pin teeth connector which will then plug into the same proprietary slot on the motherboard.
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It is not the first time we have seen this proprietary design. Apple has previously incorporated a similar approach in its Mac Pro systems. These high-end devices would not include power plugs on the exclusively-designed GPUs. Instead, they too would be powered through the motherboard.
ASUS says the new power connector can draw up to 600W of power. This makes it possible to power all current GPUs. Keep in mind that ASUS has also designed new motherboards to support these cards. The company says you can use any GPU on the new motherboards that have these power pins. However, you can’t use a new GPU on an old board due to the extra pins needing a place to plug in.
According to WCCFTech, the demo ASUS hosted at Computex showed the company plugging a GPU into an ASUS Z790 TUF Gaming Motherboard and powering it without any 12VHPWR adapter. The GPU draws its power from the motherboard instead. The power draw is then taken from the motherboard which has an extra dedicated PCI-E port on the back.
ASUS says the new motherboards will go on sale later this year. The company will also roll out GPUs to go alongside these boards. It definitely seems like a step forward to avoid messy cables but we don’t know what the demand is at this point.
Source: WCCFTECH
