Asus details cable-free HPCE connector for video cards with 600+W TGP

While GPU makers strive to make each new generation more power efficient than previous ones, TGP ratings seem to only go up and power connector issues are becoming more prevalent, especially now that the market is ready to embrace PCIe 5.0 video cards. Nvidia’s high-end RTX 4000 cards are notorious for such power issues, as there have been quite a few reports of melting power cables out there. AIB partners are already offering cards with hidden connectors and there also are 90-degree custom connectors that can improve the situation, but Asus believes that eliminating power cables altogether should be the proper way to address the issues. Instead of dealing with cumbersome cables and power adapters that might or mightn’t get properly inserted, Asus wants to introduce a motherboard-based connector that can supply more than 600 W of power.

Asus initially presented a few cards featuring support for the new GC-HPWR / HPCE (High Power Card Edge) connector at Computex in June, but no motherboard implementation was shown back then. These details were recently made public at the Bilibili World 2023 event in Shanghai, where Asus released full specs for the HPCE connector. Apparently, this solution already exists for the server market, and Asus is tweaking it now for the desktop sector.

In order to improve cable management and overall case aesthetics, Asus is planning to include an HPCE interface in line with the PCIe X16 slot on each of its future motherboards. The HPCE connector features sixteen pins for power delivery and twelve more pins provide a direct link to all the relevant systems on the motherboard. As far as size is concerned, the connector resembles a PCIe X1 slot, and users can easily insert and lock the video card into the PCIe X16 as well as the HPCE slots at the same time.

For now, the HPCE connector has been implemented only on GPUs up to an RTX 4070 with 200 W TGP, but Asus claims that the connector supports more than 600 W of power, making it ideal for the next gen power-hungry flagships. Fortunately, the standard is not proprietary, so other motherboard makers can contribute with design refinements if it sees wide enough adoption.

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