ASUS RTX 5090 BTF 2.5 connector pushes over 1000W power, more reliable than 16-pin connector

ASUS has tested its new BTF 2.5 power connector for its in-house GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, which is better than the new 16-pin 12V-2x6 power connector, with improved reliability and lower temperatures.

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ASUS introduced its new BTF ecosystem expansion at Computex 2025, with the BTF family of products including the new "GC-HPWR" power connector for motherboards, paving the way for GPUs like the ASUS RTX 5090 BTF to be powered without its 16-pin power connector, feeding all of the power into the motherboard itself.

The new GC-HPWR (Graphics Card - High Power) connector has reached version 2.5, and is found on ASUS's new motherboards, is capable of sending 1000W of power through the motherboard and into a graphics card. ASUS General Manager Tony Yu used the company's in-house ROG Strix GeForce RTX 5090 BTF through a bunch of tests, displaying the capabilities of the GC-HPWR connector.

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At first, this allowed the RTX 5090 BTF graphics card to hit around 600W, which meets the default TDP of the RTX 5090. Tony increased the load to close to 1300W, supplying the GPU with over 1000W flowing through the GC-HPWR connector. The connector handled it like a champion, with the connector temperature not even hitting 40C, so Tony kept pushing.

The load was increased to close to 1900W with 150A of current fed through the GC-HPWR connector, a massive 3x increase over what the 16-pin power connector is capable of. Even with this massive load flowing through the GC-HPWR connector, the connector barely budged over 40C.

Tony added another 1600W ROG power supply to connect a 16-pin power connector to the GPU alongside the beefier GC-HPWR, and with over 300W supplied to the GPU from each PSU, the GPU continued to operate without any issues. This debunks the rumor that powering the ASUS GeForce RTX 5090 BTF with both 16-pin and GC-HPWR connectors at the same time would cause any damage, but the dual rail design won't be available on retail products unfortunately.