Concept RTX 4070 board says goodbye to power cables as ASUS shows off a new proprietary solution

The 12VHPWR power connector present on the RTX 40 series GPUs has been controversial, to say the least. From initial meltdowns that triggered a full-on investigation by Gamers Nexus to recent reports of melting connectors, the implementation of 12VHPWR seems far from perfect. It appears we may not have to deal with the 12VHPWR connectors, or traditional 8-pin ones for that matter, in some future ASUS GPUs according to a new report by Wccftech.

Per Wccftech, ASUS may be preparing a new line of RTX 40 cards that won’t use power cables. Instead, the boards will rely on a proprietary interface to deliver power straight from the motherboard to the GPU. The company showed Wccftech a concept RTX 4070 board with a triple-fan, 2.3-slot design. According to the publication, the card doesn’t fall under any of ASUS’s established GPU lines like ROG Strix. Instead, it has the “Megalodon” moniker on the backplate. ASUS has said that the “Megalodon” term is non-final, so we may see the GPU launch under a different name when it comes to the market.

Moving on, the proprietary power delivery solution on the concept RTX 4070 is placed beside the PCIe Gen 4.0 x16 connections and is rated to deliver up to 600 W. In other words, the new connector is sufficient enough even for the most power-hungry cards like the RTX 4090 which has a TDP of 450 W.

Naturally, there are currently no motherboards on the market that support ASUS’s new power interface. As such, the company showed an ASUS Z790 TUF gaming motherboard with the new “GC_HPWR” slot for the proprietary GPU power connector. ASUS mentioned that the “GC_HPWR” naming is temporary and the new port will have an official name on release. Interestingly, the motherboard had all the power-related stuff, including three 8-pin connectors and a single 12VHPWR connector, on the back. So, cables from the PSU slot into these connectors in the back while the card draws power from the “GC_HPWR” port in the front.

While we have no official word on the pricing and release date of the motherboard and the GPU, Wccftech reports that the board will be available later this year. Both the motherboard and the GPU will also be more expensive than current offerings owing to the extra manufacturing costs associated with the new designs.

Buy the ASUS TUF Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 on Amazon