Recently, for some reason, major video card manufacturers have begun to actively work to hide the power cable coming from the power supply from the user’s eyes. First, ASUS showed off an advanced graphics card with a proprietary power connector, and now the lesser-known Inno3D showed the world its unusual graphics accelerators RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 Ti, which are equipped with a special system with a hidden power connector.
This will allow you to assemble a more attractive gaming or work computer, through the transparent panel of which the cables leading to the video card will not be visible.
Quite an interesting solution that allows you to free the user’s view of the additional cables of the system
Usually, for video cards, the power connector is located on the side panel, which “looks” at the user through the transparent side panel of the case, but for the RTX 4070 AX eSports and RTX 4060 Ti iChill X2 White models, move this connector to the opposite side by placing the 8-pin connector directly between cooling system radiator and backplate.
Moreover, so that this cable does not interfere and is more inconspicuous, the manufacturer also divided the backplate into two halves – the second one covers the cable, making the structure monolithic. This slightly complicates the process of assembling the system – you need to think through everything in advance so as not to end up in a stalemate.
The fact is that gamers usually install a video card in the PCI-E slot, and then connect the power (or connect the cable, and then put the video card in place, if the cable length allows such manipulations). Here you must first insert the cable in the case, remove the cover from the video card, connect the cable, install the cover, and then install the video card into the slot. It is also worth noting that the power cable in this case is very close to the radiator, which, of course, tends to heat up, plus the flow of hot air also clearly does not bode well.
And given that some RTX 4060 Ti are capable of heating up to 88 C at peak loads, the cable may well suffer from this over time. On the other hand, the power adapter is mounted at an angle of 90, so even if you use a 12VHPWR adapter, there should be no problems with poor contact.
And, of course, although the slot is located in a different place, technically the video card has remained the same – the gamer does not need a special motherboard, case or power supply, so such a solution has a good chance of success. Especially for those gamers who put the visual component of the assembly in the first place.