New Asus GPU 600W Motherboard power connector

[NumLock21]

The special power connector for GPUs really isn't new. Apple already had it in their Mac Pros. 

 

[Quackers101]

1 hour ago, NumLock21 said:

The special power connector for GPUs really isn't new. Apple already had it in their Mac Pros.

its likely not, but in the consumer space (maybe not new) as not seen that much of? also if its get pushed like the video said they did, that there might be more of it.

[Mark Kaine]

20 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

I mean, the precedent is there.

what did they patent?  is the mouse actually good? it looks kinda decent and im super annoyed by the cable of my logitech g203, plus its too big and the side buttons way too small >.<

[Mark Kaine]

12 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

The special power connector for GPUs really isn't new. Apple already had it in their Mac Pros. 

 

yeah, the way it is now is super stupid anyways, bigger gpus would need way more support and a bigger pci connector on the mobo side would fix that, plus no more ugly cables dangling around...

[leadeater]

26 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah, the way it is now is super stupid anyways, bigger gpus would need way more support and a bigger pci connector on the mobo side would fix that, plus no more ugly cables dangling around...

I'm actually quite in favor of Asus's idea here. I do see compatibility problems with other motherboards interfering with the slot power but if the card comes with both slot and PCIe plug connectors feasibly it can be used with cables or the slot power.

 

Maybe the PCIe spec just needs to be updated and x16 slots optionally rated for 1000W and GPUs/ASIC transition to slot only power.

[SorryBella]

25 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

what did they patent?  is the mouse actually good? it looks kinda decent and im super annoyed by the cable of my logitech g203, plus its too big and the side buttons way too small >.<

1. The hotswap sockets made specifically for mouse switches. So now for anyone in the mouse market to offer hotswaps, its back to basic with the classic Millmax plugs, something like this from PiranhaMouseMods for G305. Which is sad honestly because that hotswap sockets are really good at holding things without making you feel like youre grinding shit.
2. Its one of the best Asus peripherals, but its superseded by Harpe AimLab Edition in tech in my opinion, its basically 3395-equivalent with stupid amount of time spent on opening the sensor specs for user adjustment. But of course Keris is an assymmetric relaxed claw mouse while the Harpe is the classic symmetric claw mouse that have been dominating the market in shape, so ergonomics are also different.

[Spotty]

11 minutes ago, leadeater said:

I'm actually quite in favor of Asus's idea here. I do see compatibility problems with other motherboards interfering with the slot power but if the card comes with both slot and PCIe plug connectors feasibly it can be used with cables or the slot power.

 

Maybe the PCIe spec just needs to be updated and x16 slots optionally rated for 1000W and GPUs/ASIC transition to slot only power.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I don't see the problem with just having power cables from the power supply. People are too concerned with how the inside of their computer looks.

Adopting this as a new standard would be bad for consumers because it will increase the cost of motherboards...

15 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Because making traces thick enough for that sort of PD on a ~dozen or so layer board aint cheap.....

 

I just see this as a gimmick and novelty. Something to get the company some attention at a trade show like CEX. It's an impractical solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I don't see the problem with just having power cables from the power supply. People are too concerned with how the inside of their computer looks.

Adopting this as a new standard would be bad for consumers because it will increase the cost of motherboards...

For me it's not aesthetics, I just like the idea. Just slotting the card in and done, nice. Very similar to how internal board modules in UPS's are done.

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

For me it's not aesthetics, I just like the idea. Just slotting the card in and done, nice. Very similar to how internal board modules in UPS's are done.

You would still have to plug cables in to the back of the motherboard which is arguably more work than just plugging in to the graphics card when you install it. The only benefit would be if you frequently replace the graphics card though most people only replace a graphics card in a system once every few years, if at all.

[porina]

6 minutes ago, Spotty said:

I just see this as a gimmick and novelty. Something to get the company some attention at a trade show like CEX. It's an impractical solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

 

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

For me it's not aesthetics, I just like the idea. Just slotting the card in and done, nice. Very similar to how internal board modules in UPS's are done.

I get both viewpoints. As it currently stands, the value add for the pain doesn't seem worth it outside of a specific niche: a display build likely going all Asus components.

 

If we start to think about standardising this and break backward compatibility, what other pain points can we fix at the same time? What would it take for the industry to move beyond ATX and close relatives?

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, Spotty said:

The only benefit would be if you frequently replace the graphics card though most people only replace a graphics card in a system once every few years, if at all.

I do 

 

Not replace though, swap cards in and out.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I don't see the problem with just having power cables from the power supply. People are too concerned with how the inside of their computer looks.

yeah, but its also like i said the current pcie slot is too small to properly support gpus, physically, and electronically, so having just to plug in the card and be done with would be super convenient, and of course look much cleaner too.

 

2 hours ago, leadeater said:

I do 

 

Not replace though, swap cards in and out.

For some reason i do this a lot too, or just to get to some parts, ssd plugs, m2 slot, or cleaning the pc i have to remove the gpu (and sometimes the cpu cooler too) the cables aren't even a big issue, the tiny, flimsy latch on the pcie slot is way more annoying,  they could update that to a more solid solution too! 

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah, but its also like i said the current pcie slot is too small to properly support gpus, physically, and electronically, so having just to plug in the card and be done with would be super convenient, and of course look much cleaner too.

With regards to GPU sag, if a GPU is sagging in the slot then it could create a poor contact on the power pins in the slot, much like how the 12VHPWR cable was an issue when bent at an angle or not fully inserted. This hasn't been a problem in the past with the PCIe slot delivering a couple of amps but if you have the slot doing upwards of 50A then having poor contact between the fingers and the slot could theoretically become a problem.

 

Side view of the slot with red being the fingers on the card. If the card is sagging and pulling down it could cause the fingers to make poor contact with the slot.

 

If sag is a problem on a card I don't think that little power slot is going to help too much. You'd still want an anti-sag bracket.

 

3 hours ago, porina said:

If we start to think about standardising this and break backward compatibility, what other pain points can we fix at the same time? What would it take for the industry to move beyond ATX and close relatives?

We've already gone through multiple add in card slot revisions that broke compatibility. ISA. PCI. AGP. While there would definitely be some issues during transition it wouldn't be the end of the world if we did move beyond PCIe to a completely new standard.

 

Maybe if the desktop PC market ever ditches x86 CPUs and moves to ARM based SoCs like what Apple is doing we'll ditch the concept of socketable CPUs and add in cards and memory slots altogether. Everything will be on the SoC and the whole logic board gets replaced when upgrading. Unless there's a drastic shift in the market I don't see that happening for desktops any time soon, but for laptops it's probably not that far off.

[porina]

9 minutes ago, Spotty said:

We've already gone through multiple add in card slot revisions that broke compatibility. ISA. PCI. AGP. While there would definitely be some issues during transition it wouldn't be the end of the world if we did move beyond PCIe to a completely new standard.

IMO there's only been two major transitions so far:

ISA era, including EISA, and VLB for higher end graphics cards

PCI era, including PCI-X, and AGP for higher end graphics cards

PCIe era, which scales enough not to need a dedicated slot for higher end graphics cards

 

The difference here is I don't see PCIe hitting a limit for data to require its replacement. An extension just for power would be nice since the base 75W isn't a lot. It is a power limit, not so much a data limit.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

With regards to GPU sag, if a GPU is sagging in the slot then it could create a poor contact on the power pins in the slot, much like how the 12VHPWR cable was an issue when bent at an angle or not fully inserted. This hasn't been a problem in the past with the PCIe slot delivering a couple of amps but if you have the slot doing upwards of 50A then having poor contact between the fingers and the slot could theoretically become a problem.

yeah, sure thats something to consider but i still think it should overall provide more stability as currently half of the gpu is literally hanging in thin air, plus all other possible advantages,  easier installation, no cables dangling around- i think when connected to the motherboard the cables could be hidden easily and would probably also be shorter etc. Idk, i just like the idea, the issue with this Asus solution is that its proprietary, thats just not good for establishing new standards (i think?)

 

 

 

[HenrySalayne]

6 hours ago, Spotty said:

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I don't see the problem with just having power cables from the power supply. People are too concerned with how the inside of their computer looks.

*insert "the search continue" meme here*

 

Cases - 2478 results

Cases without see-through panels - 3 results

[HenrySalayne]

3 hours ago, Spotty said:

If sag is a problem on a card I don't think that little power slot is going to help too much. You'd still want an anti-sag bracket.

A new design could include structural support for PCIe cards to counter this problem.

The main problem is backward compatibility and most current motherboards would be incompatible with a new connector. The space in-line with the PCIe slot is currently used for heatsinks and other components. A future GPU design would need a removable adapter (a power riser) for quite some time, which adds to complexity and reduces rigidity. 

[thewelshbrummie]

31 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

The main problem is backward compatibility and most current motherboards would be incompatible with a new connector.

And this won't work on ITX boards which just don't have any room beyond the end of the slot to add anything. Seems a bit backwards to limit the market of a product if it lacks universal compatibility.

[StephanTW]

This honestly sound horrible, between the potential even worse time people are gonna have trying to get it out of a motherboard, I swear sometimes it feels impossible on current cards already, and the more complex and expensive mb's which i feel still would need an extra connector or 2-4 on there to supply those pins.
And i feel that those transient spikes will effect nearby traces so extra shielding be needed to prevent an unstable rig

[dilpickle]

I'm in favor of anything that gets rid of GPU power cables. Its silly how they just became accepted.

[GhostRoadieBL]

Oh good, another dead on announce power connection standard making more walled gardens and limiting customer choice.

 

Any word on 12v only motherboards? Didn't see any recently. AMD with Nvidia's firestarter connection? Nope, reversed motherboard connectors are interesting but have yet to go mainstream despite being multiple generations old ideas.

 

This looks like another way to limit people from building so I'm against it. Don't screw with what works if it means walling off your products from the rest of the industry standards.

[williamcll]

Oh hey doesn't Apple also do this on their Radeons?

[Touch My Hamm]

this comic comes to mind whenever a company wants to help fix standard by creating a new standard for people to use.

[pas008]

i find this funny how 12VHPWR is labeled as nvidia's connector cause actually nvidia's was just 12pin without 4 extra pins (did those have issues on 3k series? wheres the reports on this?) and is compatible with pci sigs 12VHPWR connector, which amd is a partner of pci sig arent they

 

come on people lol

and if we are moving the connector to the motherboard arent we going to have same issue unless we revert back to 6 pin 8 pin but they had issues too

i'd love pci e 5.0 pro slot i remember agp pro slot had abit mobo with it

 

fyi i been around when its was 20 pin for mobo then became 24 then we added 4 pin for cpu

4 pin molex was way more dangerous actually some old agp cards required 4 pin molex that i owned

also remember 4 pin cpu problems too

and not to mention fan connectors melting too

 

[SADS]

I quite like this idea. My first thought was 'So where's the plugs for the mobo to power this?' and when i saw all those sockets on the back I just started having nightmares with trying to figure out case compatibility.

 

I feel like even if all the existing connectors were still on the front/side pointing and these were in place alongside them, I'd still like not having those fugly cables sticking out the front of the card.

 

Mobos for sure need more work on their connectivity. so many connectors without 90 degree options for example still, for example.

It's still a battle to hide and route everything that is connected in a build, even with dual chamber setups!