Asus Intros GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Video Card With Integrated M.2 SSD Slot
by Anton Shilov on November 24, 2023 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- SSDs
- Asus
- Ada Lovelace
- GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
- AD106
Asus this week formally introduced its ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD OC Edition 8 GB graphics card, an unusual video card that also offers an M.2 SSD slot. First showcased earlier this year, the card is aimed at small form factor systems, giving system builders access to a full-bandwidth M.2 slot for additional storage without having to occupy a second PCIe slot.
Just like other GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards, the Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD is based on NVIDIA's AD106 GPU with 4352 CUDA cores (that can operate at up to 2595 MHz). As AD106 only has 8 PCIe lanes out of the gate, regular RTX 4060 Ti cards do not use the other 8 lanes supplied by a PCIe x16 slot. However for their special SSD card, Asus is taking a different tack, using PCIe bifurcation to directly wire up 4 of the remaining 8 lanes to an M.2 slot (no bridges or switch chips required). The end result being that the GPU gets its usual PCIe 4.0 x8 interface while also giving the M.2 slot a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface.
An M.2 2280 slot is located on the backside of the card and can be easily accessed by the user. The cooling system of the graphics card can contact the SSD using a thermal pad, so the cooler of the Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD can cool down the drive to ensure its consistent performance even under high loads.
Compared to a prototype board that Asus demonstrated back in June, Asus has simplified the final product. Specifically, whereas the prototype featured two M.2 slots – one of which required removal of the cooling system – the commercial product only has one M.2 slot on the back that is easy to access.
Internally, the use of PCIe bifurcation does present some additional complications. The host needs to support bifurcation of a single PCIe x16 link down to x8 + x8, which virtually all modern AMD and Intel platforms do (and indeed, this is how most of these systems drive multiple x16 slots). But there are the rare exceptions, particularly with entry-level platforms. And even then, bifurcation at the device level isn't something commonly used in consumer hardware, which is to say it's not always well-tested. To that end, Asus offers a list of its own motherboards that are guaranteed to support its Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD graphics card.
Otherwise, the Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD OC Edition 8GB is a fairly typical RTX 4060 Ti card. Additional power is supplied via an 8-pin PCIe power connector, and Asus offers the standard 3x DisplayPort 1.4a + 1x HDMI 2.1b video outputs. Meanwhile, cooling for the 2.5-slot wide card is provided by a pair of axial fans.
At this point, Asus has not announced a release date or a suggest price for the card. So it remains to be seen when it will become available.
Source: Asus
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zdz - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
That x16 slot, GPU takes 8 and there's second 8 to be used.PeachNCream - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
Which leaves 4 lanes unused on the slot. Seems wasteful for a feature that won't benefit many users, but someone apparently thinks this is stuff the world needs to have inflicted upon it just like early ISA sound cards that shipped with an IDE-ish connector for a CD-ROM drive.meacupla - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
1. It's designed for mITX systems2. PCIe bifurcation is inconsistent for desktop CPUs. Most of them can split 16 into 8+8, but a surprising amount of them cannot do 8+4+4 or 4+4+4+4.
If you want to talk about "wasteful", it's using a laptop GPU in a desktop form factor.
PeachNCream - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
As someone that use ITX with VIA C3 and C7 CPUs long before the form factor became popular, I can happily state those fit in literally any ATX case and can support a positively huge amount of storage without the need for something that will end up as an oddity with iffy support at best. If you're really space-constrained, there are better options than ITX and this is coming from a prior proponent of the form factor. mATX is great for that and if you need smaller, laptops sell gajillions of times more systems than clunky old, obsolete desktops anyway.Reflex - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
I also run mITX and in my Dan A4-SFX I'll take anything that will get me additional internal functionality without going to a larger form factor. This having integrated cooling makes it superior to the secondary M.2 on the backside of my motherboard (where no heatsink can really be used) and it lets me do something creative with that slot, such as an Oculink adapter for instance.This basically costs nothing and lets you use more of the system capabilities. If you don't need it, don't use it. But there is nothing about it that is bad or wasteful.
PeachNCream - Thursday, November 30, 2023 - link
I'm not sure its a waste to use laptop GPUs in desktops. If they aren't selling well and there is ample supply, diverting them to desktop cards may offer cooling and power efficiencies while still delivering sufficient performance. The gotcha is the vendor really should make it clear that this is a mobile variant with relevant performance impacts that implies and I suspect that won't be well-articulated on the product package if this ever goes on sale.Googer - Thursday, November 30, 2023 - link
Where it will benefit people is in space limited, ITX type machines. The rest of using using ATX or larger will see no need for a lower power gpu with an SSD.cantcurecancer - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
Would be cool if it was a low-profile card. If you don't have space for another M.2 slot, it stands to reason that you might not have space for a full height GPU.meacupla - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
I doubt there is enough PCB space for a low-profile 4060Ti with NVMe slot.Gigabyte's 4060 OC LP is already considerably larger (longer) than the 1650 LP and RTX 4000 SFF Ada it has replaced.
ballsystemlord - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
Another really interesting question is, how do they cool the SSD? Let's face it, the SSD is physically attached to one of the biggest heat generating parts on the PC and you think it will stay cool?