Home » How Next-Gen GPUs Could Pull More Than 600W Directly From The Motherboard

How Next-Gen GPUs Could Pull More Than 600W Directly From The Motherboard

by Anjali Anjali
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gpu back no cables
hero gc hpwr connector

Building PCs is fairly straightforward, nevertheless it’s not with out its challenges. Many lovers will let you know that probably the most tedious a part of placing a PC collectively is among the final: hooking up the ability provide cables. By necessity, energy connectors are type of giant and unwieldy, they usually can’t solely be a ache to route, but additionally sometimes troublesome to really get fully-seated. That’s vital, lest you find yourself with a smoking cable.

We’ve seen makes an attempt to rectify these points previously, often by transferring the connectors round to an easier-to-access location. What in the event you simply eliminated the connectors solely, although? That’s what ASUS has been engaged on with its “GC-HPWR” connector, which we first noticed again in May.
gpu back no cables
A prototype GPU with the GC-HPWR connector. Image: ASUS

The thought is that, as a substitute of plugging a bunch of cumbersome wire bundles into your graphics card, completely trashing the aesthetics of your construct, you as a substitute slot a second connector on the cardboard right into a small slot towards the entrance of the board that then provides the ability. This connector idea is named “GC-HPWR”, and ASUS already has working prototype graphics playing cards and motherboards utilizing it.

front view gc hpwr

Well, we all know a bit of extra in regards to the proposal now because of sometimes-leaker 188号, higher often known as @momomo_us on Xwitter. They shared a lot of pages from what look like a specification doc for the GC-HPWR connector. In essence, there are two components to the connector: one which serves primarily for the graphics card to speak to the motherboard its standing and the way a lot energy it wants, after which one other half that really provides the ability.

That would possibly sound acquainted in the event you’re acquainted with the 12VHPWR GPU connector usually used on NVIDIA’s high-end graphics playing cards. That connector has twelve pins for energy, and a separate 4 pins for speaking with the ability provide. Indeed, the GC-HPWR connector is mainly simply the 12VHPWR plug tailored into an ordinary HPCE type issue.
gc hpwr pinout

HPCE stands for “High Power Card Edge”, and it is a design that has seen lengthy use in servers and supercomputers for delivering plenty of energy by, you guessed it, a card edge connector. Some websites have reported this time period because the identify of the connector, however that is incorrect; that is simply the kind of the connector.

hpce connector

Note that you just nonetheless have to attach a 12VHPWR connector to the motherboard. Indeed, whereas this connector removes the necessity for working cumbersome wire bundles to the surface fringe of your graphics card, it does not fully take away the necessity for such cables. After all, the GPU has to get its energy from someplace. On the unique idea that the corporate confirmed again in May, that motherboard had all the further energy connectors on the again of the board—handy, for making a clear construct, however definitely not nice in your common pc case.

ASUS will apparently be promoting a small provide of graphics playing cards and motherboards sporting this configuration, doubtless as a pair, however we’ve not seen any point out of pricing or launch dates for these. Likewise, we additionally have not seen some other distributors speaking about related configurations. What do you consider the GC-HPWR connector? Is it one thing you’d use, or would you somewhat stick to ol’ dependable 8-pin energy connectors? Let us know within the feedback.

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