Asus this week formally launched its ASUS Twin GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD OC Version 8 GB graphics card, an uncommon video card that additionally affords an M.2 SSD slot. First showcased earlier this 12 months, the cardboard is aimed toward small kind issue techniques, giving system builders entry to a full-bandwidth M.2 slot for added storage with out having to occupy a second PCIe slot.
Identical to different GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics playing cards, the Twin GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD relies on NVIDIA’s AD106 GPU with 4352 CUDA cores (that may function at as much as 2595 MHz). However fairly than wiring up all 16 PCIe lanes coming into the cardboard to the GPU, Asus has wired up simply 8, giving the GPU a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface whereas leaving the remaining 8 PCIe lanes to drive the M.2 slot.
An M.2 2280 slot is situated on the bottom of the cardboard and may be simply accessed by the person. Internally, Asus is counting on PCIe bifurcation right here, that means there is not a PCIe swap or bridge chip current. Quite, the M.2 slot is fed immediately through the PCIe lanes, permitting it to run at as much as PCIe 5.0 speeds. The cooling system of the graphics card can contact the SSD utilizing a thermal pad, so the cooler of the Twin GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD can settle down the drive to make sure its constant efficiency even beneath excessive hundreds.
In comparison with a prototype board that Asus demonstrated again in June, Asus has simplified the ultimate product. Particularly, whereas the prototype featured two M.2 slots – certainly one of which required removing of the cooling system – the business product solely has one M.2 slot on the again that’s straightforward to entry.
Internally, the usage of PCIe bifurcation does current some further issues. The host must assist bifurcation of a single PCIe x16 hyperlink all the way down to x8 + x8, which just about all trendy AMD and Intel platforms do (and certainly, that is how most of those techniques drive a number of x16 slots). However there are the uncommon exceptions, notably with entry-level platforms. And even then, bifurcation on the system degree is not one thing generally utilized in shopper {hardware}, which is to say it is not at all times well-tested. To that finish, Asus affords a listing of its personal motherboards which are assured to assist its Twin GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD graphics card.
In any other case, the Twin GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD OC Version 8GB is a reasonably typical RTX 4060 Ti card. Extra energy is equipped through an 8-pin PCIe energy connector, and Asus affords the usual 3x DisplayPort 1.4a + 1x HDMI 2.1b video outputs. In the meantime, cooling for the two.5-slot broad card is offered by a pair of axial followers.
At this level, Asus has not introduced a launch date or a recommend worth for the cardboard. So it stays to be seen when it can grow to be out there.
