during the fair Computex this year, we were able to see (first-hand, it must be said) the first Graphic card of the world that works wirelessly power supply, since as we already showed you, it uses a special connector in the lower area, in line with the usual PCI-Express, to take power from the motherboard. It has now been known that ASUS It will launch this graphics card tomorrow, although at least initially only in China.
China is usually the most recurring scenario for manufacturers to launch their experiments. The public in this country is always quite open to trying new things, and depending on the success it has in the Asian country, it may or may not reach the rest of the world.
ASUS’s first wireless graphics card
When we visited Computex 2023 this year, we were already able to see first-hand this graphics card that, in fact, we had already been talking about for weeks before. As we have already mentioned before, it does not require PCIe connectors from the power supply because it incorporates a new connector called GC_HPWR At the bottom, a proprietary connector that unfortunately only works on certain motherboard models that integrate it, of course from ASUS.
Now, it has been announced that ASUS is preparing a promotion called “Back To The Future” (BTF) for its launch in China, where, as we mentioned at the beginning, this type of experiment is usually more successful. Obviously, this promotion includes both the graphics card in question and the motherboard necessary to make it work, in this case an ASUS TUF Gaming B760M in mATX format, a board that has all the connectors hidden in order to create a cable-free ecosystem (at least , visible). In this promotion they also talk about a compatible A21 box.
By the way, the graphics card in question is an ASUS GeForce RTX 4070, with the BTF tag that we explained to you a moment ago. ASUS is also expected to launch in China a TUF Gaming motherboard with Z790 chipset but in standard ATX format, as well as its GT502 Concept parallel case. The issue of the boxes is important, because as you can see in the images above, by having the power connectors on the back, a lot of space is needed in the back to be able to channel the cables (and by a lot we mean at least 50 mm ).
Is this type of design a good idea?
In this regard, we are going to talk to you from experience: the idea of being able to have a PC with all the cables hidden is undoubtedly quite attractive, as it would allow us to see the internal hardware very clean, without cables hindering the air flow and without them catching. dust. However, the myriad of connections we would have on the back of the case would be quite interesting to look at…
However, the biggest impediment to this becoming a standard is compatibility. To begin with, we are talking about a graphics card and motherboard that have a proprietary connector (the GC_HPWR that we mentioned before and that you can see in the image above), which means that only ASUS can manufacture it. To continue, we would be greatly limiting the list of components that we will need to install: for now there is only one RTX 4070, which also needs a special motherboard and that we can only install in a couple of specific boxes.
Of course, the idea seems very attractive to us, but we see the ecosystem as too closed for it to be something that is successful. Another thing would be if this “invention” were made with a design that any manufacturer could adopt, something that would give us a much greater variety of components to choose from.