Motherboard manufacturers appear to be picking up the pace in switching to new PCIe graphics card slot designs, phasing out the traditional latch in favor of a button or, in the case of Asus, a completely seamless mechanism.
Video cardz Reports of a proliferation of new motherboards for both AMD and Intel’s new 800-series products that do away with the GPU lock, including motherboards from Asus and MSI that were recently shown off at Gamescom, with more likely to come from ASRock, Biostar and Gigabyte (who demonstrated similar concepts at Computex not so long ago).
At this point, we need to back up a bit for some background context. First, for those wondering what the “latch” refers to, it’s the clip on the back of the PCIe slot that keeps your graphics card securely held in its interface. You’ll need to pull that latch back to remove the card if you’re doing something like an upgrade (or you need to take the board out for cleaning, perhaps).
The problem is that this can be a relatively simple process, but sometimes the latch can be a bit fiddly. This is especially true if you have a PC that is packed full of hardware inside and has very little room to maneuver.
If you have a massive high-end graphics card, and perhaps a beefy CPU cooler as well, you may not even be able to reach the latch with your fingers when it comes to removing the GPU. In that case, PC owners often resort to using something like a chopstick to navigate through a small gap and depress the latch, a tricky task.
Some less savvy people even use a screwdriver and break the latch, or accidentally poke the motherboard in an attempt to push the latch down, potentially damaging components.
That’s why we’ve been seeing a button release mechanism come into play lately, as demonstrated by MSI with its Intel Z890 MPG Edge motherboard. All you have to do is hold down the button – which is located on the side of the motherboard, in an easily accessible spot – to flip the latch into the open position. These types of designs have been around for a while, but as mentioned, are becoming more common.
Asus has gone one step further with a new AMD X870 motherboard, as demonstrated by overclocker Der8auer at Gamescom. The motherboard features a system called PCIe Q-Release Slim (see the YouTube clip below).
This is a completely seamless quick release mechanism where during installation you simply push the graphics card in, and to remove the card you simply pull on the front of the board and out it comes – like magic. (As Der8auer illustrates, the card stays firmly in place if you pull anywhere other than the front).
Analysis: Look mom, no bolt!
Asus has already used the PCIe Q-Release Slim invention in an earlier motherboard (the ROG Maximus Z790 Hero BTF), or at least something that looked very similar, but completely slipped past our radar – and it appears the company now has broader plans to implement the quick-release mechanism on 800-series motherboards.
Other motherboard manufacturers have also started using the aforementioned buttons for release more and more, so is the latch officially dead? Well, it seems like it’s definitely on its way out, but there have been some concerns raised, at least regarding the seamless solution Asus has introduced.
Okay, so the latch isn’t great, but if it breaks, it doesn’t render your PCIe slot useless (just more dangerous). What some people are worried about is that Asus’ seamless Q-Release mechanism might malfunction. Well, then you’d end up with a graphics card that’s stuck in a PCIe slot with no apparent way to get it out. (At least not one that doesn’t have a pretty good chance of ending up with your motherboard in multiple pieces.) And of course, it’s a more complex mechanism than a latch alone, so it might be more likely to break.
Still, the stuck GPU scenario really shouldn’t happen, and if Asus has designed the PCIe Q-Release Slim mechanism right (given that this is the second generation, as noted), then it seems like a pretty convenient way to handle the installation and removal of a graphics card.
Either way, it looks like we’ll definitely be seeing more button deletion mechanisms on AMD and Intel 800-series motherboards, and perhaps even fancier concepts beyond Asus’s.