Asus seems to have quietly modified the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin harm

Asus discovered itself dealing with accusations of a GPU-damaging connector design firstly of this yr, due to claims that its Q-Release Slim PCI slot system may probably scrape GPU pins over repeated use. Now it seems Asus could have quietly modified the design of the system, as a motherboard has been noticed with a distinctly totally different slot mechanism in newly-released product photographs.

As noticed by Uniko’s Hardware, product photographs of the Asus ROG Apex X870E motherboard present what seems like a Q-Release Slim design with out the steel body between the facility and information lanes, which was thought to probably contribute to early put on (by way of Videocardz).

At the time of the claims, Asus launched a press release through which it denied that Q-Release Slim slots triggered a lot difficulty to a card’s operate:

“In our inside testing and analysis of the extraordinarily small variety of circumstances reported, we discovered no harm to the motherboard or graphics card that may have an effect on performance and or efficiency. However, it is very important emphasize that any sort of PCIe add in card will exhibit indicators of utilization and put on marking after 60 steady insertions and removals. Additionally, if the set up and elimination aren’t carried out based on the producer’s suggestions, the probability of scratches and or put on could improve.

“Despite this, we now have discovered no influence on the performance of both the graphics card or the motherboard.”

However, Asus China’s buyer assist was noticed providing motherboard replacements for homeowners of any Asus motherboard geared up with PCIe Q-Release Slim slots. It famous that it could revise the design, too.

And now we now have a slot design that appears considerably totally different from the earlier iteration. Videocardz claims that early assessment pattern footage present the identical motherboard with the older Q-Release design, suggesting it was revised fairly late into the discharge course of.

Regardless, the claims right here have at all times been about elevated put on over a number of GPU set up and elimination cycles, not intensive harm, and people claims weren’t significantly widespread. It’s doable that Asus has merely modified the socket design on the final minute to stop additional allegations of undue put on, even when it did not discover any proof for it in its inside testing.

Still, it seems like Asus could have deemed the difficulty worthy of modifications regardless, so it is one thing price searching for in case you plan on shopping for an Asus motherboard within the close to future.