The 12VHPWR power connector meltings will forever be remembered alongside NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series GPU launch. An imperfect design paired with user error has killed several RTX 4090 graphics cards in the last six months. Most vendors have responded by revising the adapter design to eliminate any possible loose connections. ASUS, however, has decided to try out a radical new approach.
During its Computex 2023 show, ASUS showed off an interesting new concept by removing the external power connectors from the GPU entirely. The graphics card gets its power via an extra bus connector which is fed by a 12VHPWR power connector on the upper backside of the motherboard. The ASUS TUF Gaming Z790 BTF which hides all its power connectors on the back is tailor-made for this design and vice versa.
For now, ASUS has fitted only one GPU, the GeForce RTX 4070 Megalodon with this power supply. Don’t expect higher-end GPUs to feature the same (anytime soon) as the internal bus may not support the increased power requirement. Furthermore, limiting the RTX 4070 Megalodon to the ASUS TUF Gaming Z790 BTF means that anyone in the market for (just) a new GPU won’t go for it.
That said, the power connector set to slide into the 16-pin slot on the back is also rated for up to 600W and is internally known as the GC_HPWR. ASUS plans on mass-producing the RTX 4070 Megaladon in the future, so expect an official name soon.
