The RTX 4070 FE graphics card being held aloft by a grizzled hand in the pits of hell. — (Image credit: Nvidia, Shutterstock)

Asus recently released its Q-Release Slim feature for GPUs
Said feature is reportedly damaging GPUs
There's no current fix for this issue from Asus

An Asus representative reached out to TechRadar with the following statement:

"The ASUS team is committed to our customers and their user experience when using our products. We are actively collecting information regarding these reports and coordinating internally across various teams to research and compile information so we can provide a clear response.

We will provide a follow up response once internal review has been completed."

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Asus’s Q-Release Slim was first revealed in August 2024 during Gamescom. It is an eject feature on 800-series AMD and Intel motherboards that makes removing graphics cards much easier. However, the recently released feature is reportedly causing major headaches for buyers.

According to HXL and Andreas Schilling from HardwareLuxx (reported on by Tom’s Hardware), Q-Release Slim has been causing damage to graphics cards by scraping off the sides of the connector. This could potentially ruin your expensive graphics cards, including the recent RTX 5090.

The Q-Release Slim is supposed to be an improved version of the Q-Release launched back in 2021 for high-end Asus ROG motherboards. It lets you quickly eject cards by titling them while pulling upwards. However, the fault lies in the peg side of the PCIe slot on the motherboard, which has a metallic piece embedded in it that scrapes against the connector. If the card is ejected frequently, this can result in significant damage — something reviews and overclockers tend to do.

Uniko’s Hardware offers more insight into the matter, including several photos from the bilibili channel. The first is of the design flaw reportedly causing this issue, while two more are before and after the original card’s condition versus the damaging results of using the Q-Release Slim eject 60 times.

This isn’t the only issue plaguing Asus either

This isn’t the only recent report concerning Asus motherboards either. Patch notes slipped out early, which revealed a BETA bios fix for a “microcode signature verification vulnerability,” apparently affecting Asus gaming motherboards.

Tavis Ormandy, the security researcher who spotted the leak, stated, "It looks like an OEM leaked the patch for a major upcoming CPU vulnerability, ie: 'AMD Microcode Signature Verification Vulnerability.’” He then continues, “I'm not thrilled about this. The patch is not currently in Linux firmware, so this is the only publicly available patch."

By the time Asus edited the patch notes to remove mentioning AMD’s microcode issue, AMD had already confirmed the vulnerability to The Register. "AMD is aware of a newly reported processor vulnerability. Execution of the attack requires both local administrator-level access to the system, and development and execution of malicious microcode," the company stated.

It seems that Asus motherboards have been embroiled in some serious trouble, which could spell disaster for both processors and graphics cards. Hopefully, the manufacturer can correct the issue soon, as the timing couldn’t be worse — with the release of the RTX 5000-series and new processors on the horizon.

Image of the RTX 4090 propped up on its packaging, with a pair of Twitter 'fire' emojis on either side of it.

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Buyer beware: Asus' Q-Release Slim feature is reportedly damaging GPUs like the RTX 5090