The world of graphics playing cards can generally seem like a bit ‘me too’. Including a splash of RGB, a manufacturing unit overclock or a cool shroud are a number of methods to distinguish a card from the pack, however including an M.2 SSD slot is one thing else. Asus has achieved precisely that. Its new Twin GeForce RTX 4060 Ti encompasses a PCIe M.2 slot constructed proper into the graphics card itself.
Although the cardboard has been demonstrated earlier than, it is now exhibiting up at a handful of European based mostly retailers (through @momomo_us). As anticipated, the SSD slot geared up mannequin comes with a markup in comparison with the common Twin RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. The Multitronic itemizing exhibits a worth of €559, in comparison with €470 for the non-SSD geared up Twin RTX 4060 Ti. Although there is no doubt this answer introduces some complexity justifying a worth premium, that is a giant markup.
The itemizing at Multitronic even consists of some advertising data, which features a line stating the slot is “able to PCIe 5.0 speeds”. The RTX 4060 Ti solely helps PCIe 4.0 although, so take that line with a grain of salt. The slot additionally consists of Asus’ Q-Latch mechanism for straightforward set up.
On the GPU facet of issues, the RTX 4060 Ti is a well-known amount at this level. It does not blow us away with its efficiency and specs, however it’s a energy thrifty and succesful mid-range choice, and it is capable of make use of Nvidia’s applied sciences, together with DLSS 3 and body era.
Including an M.2 slot to a graphics card may appear to be the reply to a query no person requested, nevertheless it’s really a really fascinating answer, for a number of causes.
Firstly, the RTX 4060 Ti solely makes use of a PCIe x8 interface, so including an M.2 slot is a intelligent manner so as to add an SSD and reap the benefits of PCIe lanes that might in any other case be misplaced when utilizing an x8 card in an x16 slot.
The second cause is cooling. Having an SSD positioned atop the graphics card ought to ship good cooling potential, because the drive will sit proper within the path of entrance to again case airflow. That should not make an enormous distinction for motherboards with main M.2 slots positioned above the graphics card, however motherboards with slots positioned beneath the graphics card are likely to obtain poor airflow, and may really operate extra like warmth absorbers because of warmth coming off of the GPU when gaming.
The SSD slot seems to be prefer it’ll be simple to entry. SSDs is usually a actual ache to put in, particularly people who require the removing of the graphics card. These tiny fiddly screws are a bane of the PC constructing expertise, and any solution to make SSD set up simpler is a welcome one in my e book.
In fact, with out testing the efficiency and cooling capabilities of an SSD mounted this fashion, we won’t know for certain how this answer will carry out, however I feel it is a very fascinating implementation. If it really works in apply, it could possibly be the primary of many graphics playing cards to introduce this intriguing answer.
