A PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot on a GPU? ASUS’ GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD has a killer feature

Major innovation? ASUS adds PCIe 5.0 storage support to their RTX 4060 Ti Dual SSD graphics card with an M.2 slot

ASUS has officially revealed their new RTX 4060 Ti Dual SSD graphics card, the first graphics card with an integrated M.2 slot. The company showcased a prototype of this graphics card earlier this year, but since this reveal a lot has changed. For starters, PCIe 5.0 compatible PCs will be able to use this GPU’s included M.2 slot at PCIe 5.0 speeds. On top of that, the M.2 slot on this graphics card can connect to this GPU’s heatsink for enhanced cooling performance.

Visually, ASUS’ RTX 4060 Ti Dual M.2 graphics card looks a lot like the company’s standard Dual GPU models. Only when you look at this GPU’s backplate you will see an on-card M.2 slot. Like all RTX 4060 Ti GPUs, this new M.2 enhanced model from ASUS supports Nvidia’s latest DLSS features, including DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation, and Ray Reconstruction. This GPU model features 8GB of VRAM. At this time ASUS appears to have no plans to release a 16GB version of this specific RTX 4060 Ti SKU.

ASUS’ RTX 4060 Ti Dual model is powered by a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The GPU also features one HDMI 2.1a output and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports.

40% lower SSD thermals

The RTX 4060 Ti Dual SSD features a pre-installed thermal pad that allows connected SSDs to tap into the graphics card’s main heatsink. This enabled higher levels of sustained performance for hot-running M.2 SSDs. ASUS states that their cooling solution can offer users 40% lower SSD thermals. This is compared with motherboard mounted M.2 slots. In ASUS’ announcement, the company also stated that temperature reductions of 6-degrees compared with motherboard mounted M.2 slots. This was found during the company’s testing.

How does the ASUS RTX 4060 Ti Dual SSD offers PCIe 5.0 M.2 support on a PCIe 4.0 graphics card

All of Nvidia’s RTX 40 series graphics cards are PCIe 4.0 compatible. Nvidia did not opt to support PCIe 5.0 with their current generation of graphics cards. So how has ASUS managed to place a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot onto this RTX 4060 Ti?

ASUS has designed their RTX 4060 Ti Dual SSD to support PCIe 5.0 SSD storage on PCIe 5.0 compatible systems. If this GPU is installed on a PCIe 5.0 compatible x16 slot, users of this graphics card will be able to utilise both a PCIe 5.0 M.2 device and their RTX 4060 Ti at their full speeds with now penalties.

While the RTX 4060 Ti is a PCIe 4.0-compliant GPU, if both the motherboard and the NVMe drive in a user’s system support PCIe 5.0, the drive will operate at full PCIe 5.0 speed. Because of this, ASUS recommends installing the Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD in the top PCIe slot on the motherboard, ensuring direct communication with the CPU. With no graphics performance hit in game and no read/write penalties to storage, this card is a straightforward solution for those who need high-speed, long-term storage in their gaming machines.

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