Tuesday, March 11th 2025
GIGABYTE Japan Conducts "Ultimate PCIe Scratch Test" - Indirectly Ribs ASUS Q-Release Slim Design
Around late January, concerned owners of high-end ASUS motherboards uploaded photo and video evidence of alleged physical damage caused by the manufacturer's PCIe "Q-Release Slim" system. Social media and forum posts showed worrying scraping and scratching on graphics card interfaces. The North American branch of ASUS responded to reports with a public service announcement: "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." Rival brands have kept tabs on this sorry situation; many offer similar motherboard-mounted GPU quick release systems. Yesterday, GIGABYTE's Japanese office posted a very "on the nose" demonstration of their EZ Latch Plus design.
The AORUS Japan social media account's "Ultimate PCIe Scratch Test" video involved the repeated insertion and removal of a candidate card from a GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE motherboard. An anonymous employee completed one hundred cycles. Upon the experiment's conclusion, the graphics card's interface displayed zero evidence of physical deterioration. The manufacturer's Japanese AORUS branch boasted (via machine translation): "start building your PC with confidence! GIGABYTE's renowned easy DIY and ultra-durable design ensures smooth, hassle-free builds and rock-solid reliability. No more worrying about peeling golden finger contacts or scratches from metal edges." Their sarcastic delivery seemingly pokes fun at ASUS and the "troubled" Q-Release Slim system; it should be noted that it is a relatively new design. As reported back in early February, ASUS China launched an extensive customer support/compensation program. According to user accounts, some very expensive custom GeForce RTX 50-series cards have suffered cosmetic damage on PCIe interfaces. GIGABYTE's Western web presences have joined in on the fun—the AORUS Official social media account delivered a slightly different spin on their overall message: "game on with confidence! With our renowned DIY-friendly and Ultra Durable design, you'll enjoy a smooth, hassle-free build with rock-solid reliability. No more worries about gold finger paint peeling or scratches from metal edges—our design provides complete protection for both your GPU and motherboard."
AORUS JAPAN's good-humored video description stated: "'AORUS TV' broadcasts irregularly. The content includes hot topics at the time, technical explanations, stand-up comedy, and more. If you like, please subscribe to the channel!"
Sources:
GIGABYTE AORUS Japan Tweet, VideoCardz, PC Gamer, Tom's Hardware
The AORUS Japan social media account's "Ultimate PCIe Scratch Test" video involved the repeated insertion and removal of a candidate card from a GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE motherboard. An anonymous employee completed one hundred cycles. Upon the experiment's conclusion, the graphics card's interface displayed zero evidence of physical deterioration. The manufacturer's Japanese AORUS branch boasted (via machine translation): "start building your PC with confidence! GIGABYTE's renowned easy DIY and ultra-durable design ensures smooth, hassle-free builds and rock-solid reliability. No more worrying about peeling golden finger contacts or scratches from metal edges." Their sarcastic delivery seemingly pokes fun at ASUS and the "troubled" Q-Release Slim system; it should be noted that it is a relatively new design. As reported back in early February, ASUS China launched an extensive customer support/compensation program. According to user accounts, some very expensive custom GeForce RTX 50-series cards have suffered cosmetic damage on PCIe interfaces. GIGABYTE's Western web presences have joined in on the fun—the AORUS Official social media account delivered a slightly different spin on their overall message: "game on with confidence! With our renowned DIY-friendly and Ultra Durable design, you'll enjoy a smooth, hassle-free build with rock-solid reliability. No more worries about gold finger paint peeling or scratches from metal edges—our design provides complete protection for both your GPU and motherboard."
8 Comments on GIGABYTE Japan Conducts "Ultimate PCIe Scratch Test" - Indirectly Ribs ASUS Q-Release Slim Design
if you look intel socket techbook for exemple , the socket is made for 20 change , pci is not made to be change everyday
Effectively, 'vertical GPU riser kits' perform the same function. -they wear out, instead of your board's soldered-on slot.
Years-back I kept finding 'weird' same-interface to same-interface adapters out of China, on eBay. Made me realize that most 'slots' (DIMM, PCIe, Etc.) are not meant for repeated 'swapping out', but for modularity in the case of (rare) repairs and (infrequent) upgrades.
It probably wasnt GigaJP but it was Giga none the less. Pepperidge farm remembers.
I put my current mainboard in three cases so far (Fractal / Jonsbo / Fractal). Removed the mainboards four times because of the wlan card which is not accessible. Multiple times I moved in and out two different graphic cards. I changed the gpu stock AM5 socket to a custom one. Everytime I had to remove the graphic card and most other components.
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I want to see a 8 hour video, the hole stream to scroll forward and backward with some sort of proof that it's not faked.
Gigabyte has some sort of concerns in my point of view with different products. There were issues with broken graphic cards pcb and other graphic card issues. There were issues with badly designed power supply units which were not taken from market. I'm sure in the internet archives there will be other issues to be found. I would not call it a quality brand but a well known brand.