Developmental efforts for hidden-connector “BTF” PCs are well underway by various manufacturers and teams today, with ASUS focusing on the cable-less GPUs in particular. The company previously released several cable-less GPUs featuring the special connector (we reviewed one), but it’s developing the next step that comes with backwards compatibility as well.
ASUS GC-HPWR “2.0” Connector
The first iteration of the BTF-compatible GPUs have a major limitation – it only works with motherboards featuring the same receptacle. That’s a major friction for the adoption of the new standard, so the engineers need to figure a way to make this connector work on standard motherboards as well.
Here’s the answer: an improved design with the connector now recessed from the GPU’s PCB, and pair it with the detachable extension to connect to compatible motherboards. ASUS’s documents also indicated that GPUs with this design will feature 12V-2×6 connector as a backup for existing motherboards. Hence, any GPU with this new design can work on both standard and BTF-compatible motherboards, and vice versa.
This new version also comes with upgraded capabilities. The first version was designed to support the same power envelope as the 12VHPWR/12V-2×6 standard, which is 600 watts; according to ASUS, the new design will reportedly support more than 1,000 watts should there be any GPUs that can draw this much power (looking at you, NVIDIA). This is achieved through more copper contact surface to reduce electrical resistance, which in turn reduces heat on the connectors.
As such, the new design should be a big game-changer for GPUs and motherboards in terms of future-proofing and compatibility – while other OEMs has started to work on hidden-connector designs, it’s unclear if they will adopt the design assuming the standard is open for everyone to adopt (which, to be fair, is largely originated from datacenters with a different name, HPCE).
Source: HardwareLuxx via Videocardz
Pokdepinion: I do think this will be a game-changer for GPU designs. Looking forward to more cable-less GPUs!
