This ASUS Concept GPU Lets M.2 SSDs Piggyback On It
This ASUS Concept GPU Lets M.2 SSDs Piggyback On It
All GPUs have the same physical PCIe x16 connector regardless of performance capabilities, and in the case of mid-range and low-end GPUs, that physical slot is only electrically connected to either x8 or x4 signaling. That leaves the remaining lanes occupied but unused – so ASUS has come up with an idea to make use of that.
This video from Tony Yu (GM at ASUS) has demonstrated a concept GPU based on RTX 4060 Ti DUAL card – the M.2 SSD (Samsung 980 PRO 2TB used for this example) simply sits alongside the GPU backplate, solving the issue where SSDs can be difficult to access once GPU is installed in motherboards. Performance tests have revealed that temperatures dropped 10°C with virtually no difference in read/write performance.
Aside from providing easier way of access, there’s actual performance benefits too. In conventional SSD installations where the slot is situated right in between the CPU and GPU coolers, much of that heat can accumulate in the heatsink, making heat transfer ineffective. By place it on top of the GPU, not only heat accumulation isn’t an issue – the SSD can also share the cooling capacity with the GPU itself thanks to its massive heatsink array.
Fun fact: SSD-on-GPU isn’t exactly a new idea – in fact, AMD previously tried with Radeon SSG, a Vega-based GPU that carries 2TB of storage onboard to effectively function as extra “VRAM” for memory-heavy workloads.
Source: Videocardz
Pokdepinion: Very interesting concept. What if flagship GPUs today switch to PCIe 5.0 x8 and carries two extra PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs alongside it?
