Tuesday, January 14th 2025
ASUS Second Generation BTF Power Connector Unveiled
Details of ASUS' next generation BTF 2.0 (BTF stands for Back to the Future) platform have appeared online, courtesy of Andreas Schilling from HardwareLuxx. The editor posted pictures from an ASUS presentation over at Bluesky that details one major change to the power connector design, which will make the BTF 2.0 graphics cards compatible with non BTF systems. This suggests that ASUS might consider offering more graphics cards with BTF 2.0 support, since they can be used in any system with the proposed changes.
As you may or may not know, the first generation BTF graphics cards ended up with a power connector at the rear, bottom edge of the graphics cards, placed somewhat behind the PCIe gold fingers. The cards also lacked any other power connectors, which made them exclusive for BTF builds. To solve this conundrum, ASUS moved its GC-HPWR PCB power connector up on the PCB, making sure it clears any motherboard components. However, instead of increasing the height of the motherboard BTF 2.0 connector, the company provides a small adapter that plugs in between the motherboard and graphics card, to make its new BTF 2.0 cards compatible with any system.
The small PCB adapter is said to support up to 1000 Watt plus power delivery and ASUS has added a small metal shield that the company claims will ensure mechanical reliability, but it might also be there to reduce EMI interference. In addition to the new placement of the GC-HPWR connector, ASUS will add a standard 12V-2x6 power connector to its new BTF 2.0 cards, which means that any recent power supply can power them using a 12-V-2x6 cable as well. This is good news for anyone that might buy one of the new BTF 2.0 cards by mistake, or for system integrators, as they can buy a single SKU of cards and use it for different types of builds. So far, we haven't seen any other company consider something similar and unless ASUS opens up the GC-HPWR connector to its competitors, it's unlikely that this will become a particularly common connector, despite its clever design.
Source:
aschilling.bsky.social
As you may or may not know, the first generation BTF graphics cards ended up with a power connector at the rear, bottom edge of the graphics cards, placed somewhat behind the PCIe gold fingers. The cards also lacked any other power connectors, which made them exclusive for BTF builds. To solve this conundrum, ASUS moved its GC-HPWR PCB power connector up on the PCB, making sure it clears any motherboard components. However, instead of increasing the height of the motherboard BTF 2.0 connector, the company provides a small adapter that plugs in between the motherboard and graphics card, to make its new BTF 2.0 cards compatible with any system.
14 Comments on ASUS Second Generation BTF Power Connector Unveiled
Honestly, this is the better way to go IMHO. Power through the motherboard as it was always meant to be from the beginning.
Still, of the motherboard can take it, I'd much rather get this via an upgraded PCIe slot.
Apple also made it work with their version on a custom PCIe x32 long for a previous Mac Pro with 2x Dual Vega GPUs.ASUS was in partnership with several casemakers on it, but they're competing against MSI's Zero equivalent. It'll be interesting to see which standard becomes mainstream. My bet is more on ASUS, just due to it having more presence in both mindshare and physical product, and other mobo makers eventually following suit.
Connector looks well engineered but running everything through the same PCB is just not it. Cables are not a bad thing.