ASUS USA Responds to Reports of Damaged GPU Interfaces - Linked to Q-Release Slim System

[T0@st]

Last week, important figures from the PC hardware community posted photo and video evidence of damaged GPU interfaces—seemingly inflicted by the ASUS PCIe Q-Release Slim system. Reports suggest that scratches and scrapes—on PCIe connectors—are the result of frequent engagement and disengagement. For example, the owner of a ROG Strix B850-A Gaming Wi-Fi S motherboard model performed sixty quick release cycles—eventually chipping away at the physical interface present on their GALAX RTX 4070 Ti HOF OC LAB card. The most vocal of critics believe that ASUS did not fully test its latest quick release mechanism—reserved mainly for inclusion on high-end motherboards. Feedback posted on Bilibili prompted Tony Wu—general manager at the company's China office—to look into the matter. In the meantime, his colleagues in North America have responded to Western news reports.

Approximately eighteen hours ago, the "ASUS_MKTLeeM" account posted a lengthy and highly comprehensive public service announcement (PSA) on NVIDIA's subreddit. The ASUS USA rep stated: "we know that many of you have ASUS products including our GeForce graphics cards and motherboards and likely saw the news recently regarding usage marks on a couple graphics cards that were installed in one of our motherboards featuring the new PCIe Q-Release Slim feature." They noted that they would welcome feedback from users on Reddit—through comments or private messages. The company messenger pointed out that the reported problems stemmed from unique user cases—professional reviewers (of expensive graphics cards) will not enjoy reading this response: "in our internal testing and evaluation of the extremely small number of cases reported, we found no damage to the motherboard or graphics card that would affect functionality and/or performance....However, it is important to emphasize that any type of PCIe add-in card will exhibit signs of usage and wear marking after 60 continuous insertions and removals."




Continuing on, the rep stated: "for those currently using ASUS motherboards with the PCIe Q-Release Slim design, there is no need for concern. Simply follow the official removal guidelines (see relevant image above) to avoid any potential damage. We would note minimal effort is required, and excessive force should not be applied. If you encounter any specific issues or abnormalities, ASUS will take full responsibility and handle them. We are committed to ensuring service and support for our customers; please contact ASUS customer service for assistance and/or more information."

TechPowerUp suggests that readers check out the full post here. According to notes placed further down in their PSA, ASUS believes that earlier iterations (non-Slim) of the quick release system are entirely problem free—based on a lack of feedback.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[_roman_]

Please help me understand it.

It's the user fault for using that PEG slot for around 60 times and damaging the graphic card printed circuit board? Did I miss something?

If the graphics card is inserted and removed following the manufacturer's recommended installation methods, there should be no issues.

Should be no issues or are there guaranteed no issues for around 500.000 changes of cards in that slot?
How often can you insert and remove a graphic card on another brand motherboard until you see the same visual damage on the graphic card?
e.g msi mainboard 1, 2, 3, 4 / biostar 1, 2, 3, 4 / gigabyte 1, 2, 3, 4 / asrock 1, 2, 3, 4 / colorful 1, 2, 3, 4 / nzxt 1, 2, 3, 4,

I do not want to read the following phrase from a mainboard maker "should be no issues".

I want to see how you use something like this to just move the graphic card with 2°

They can not even give a tolerance like 2° +1° / -1 °

By just checking the screenshot part I provided that picture looks definitely more than 2°. How many millimeters height difference from left to ride end of the peg slot?

-- I think the user who posted that problem was someone who did a lot of graphic card reviews over many years for a german hardware reveiw site. Regardless - I doubt there is an user error. Especially someone who does so many reviews with so many hardware has most likely a lot of experience over the years.

 

[Niceumemu]

If ASUS truly stands behind their word that they'll replace any damaged items (even 10 years from now) because of this design then that's probably fine if it truly is a very small number of cases.

If they ever change this design in any future product though then we know they're lying about it being user error and just don't want the cost burden of replacing everyone's boards with a new design. Time will tell