AFAIK, Asus didn't wire up the GPU to 8x PCIe lanes. It's laptop GPU with only 8x lanes available in the first place, and everyone else's 4060Ti is also wired for 8x.
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.
1. It's designed for mITX systems 2. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
It states that it's designed to face the front of the card towards the GPU and a heat pad transfers the heat to the card heatsink permitting them to share a cooling system.
I quite like that general idea, because PCIe lanes are precious and shouldn't be wasted.
16 lanes of PCIe 5 are simply overkill most of the time so being able to use 4-12 of them for something else is quite useful. Now if that should be enabled via riser cards or cables is another topic, the static slots are really no longer a good fit in many cases and much more so when you try to go with smaller form factors.
But it shouldn't just be NVMe drives, there is plenty of others candiates for M.2 expansion. I use M.2 to PCIe x4 cables for 10GBase-T NICs and also M.2 form factor 6xSATA controllers in some of my systems, which don't have enough slots to support everything I want to plug into them.
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boozed - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
The original announcement passed me by but, having had to buy a PCIe M.2 card recently, that's kind of coolmeacupla - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
AFAIK, Asus didn't wire up the GPU to 8x PCIe lanes. It's laptop GPU with only 8x lanes available in the first place, and everyone else's 4060Ti is also wired for 8x.mr2ns - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
^^^ seconded.meanwhile nailed it
mr2ns - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
Gee, thanks autocorrect. Turning meaculpa into meanwhile. Awesome...Railgun - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
I giess proofreading is a lost art…Railgun - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
Dammit…ballsystemlord - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
Sssh, now AMD can do the same with the 6400 and claim that it's "a good thing" (TM).nandnandnand - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
I can't wait for the 6550 XT with 3x M.2 SSDs.Ryan Smith - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
Thanks!ballsystemlord - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
M.2 SSDs take 4 lanes of PCIe. How does this GPU manage to give it 8?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?Reflex - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
It states that it's designed to face the front of the card towards the GPU and a heat pad transfers the heat to the card heatsink permitting them to share a cooling system.ballsystemlord - Monday, November 27, 2023 - link
Ah, sorry, my mistake.lwatcdr - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
I want to see graphics cards with USB c out. With PCIe 5 we have enough bandwidth.kaidenshi - Wednesday, November 29, 2023 - link
My Radeon Pro W5700 has USB C out, alongside five mini DisplayPort outputs.https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-pro-w...
Googer - Thursday, November 30, 2023 - link
I'd love to see a GPU that has an m.2 connection onboard. But not for general storage; but to act as a dedicated shader cache for the GPU to load.flyingpants265 - Sunday, December 10, 2023 - link
The guy from MLID said they'd probably rather just stick 32GB of RAM on there.fwz000777 - Wednesday, December 20, 2023 - link
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abufrejoval - Thursday, December 21, 2023 - link
I quite like that general idea, because PCIe lanes are precious and shouldn't be wasted.16 lanes of PCIe 5 are simply overkill most of the time so being able to use 4-12 of them for something else is quite useful. Now if that should be enabled via riser cards or cables is another topic, the static slots are really no longer a good fit in many cases and much more so when you try to go with smaller form factors.
But it shouldn't just be NVMe drives, there is plenty of others candiates for M.2 expansion. I use M.2 to PCIe x4 cables for 10GBase-T NICs and also M.2 form factor 6xSATA controllers in some of my systems, which don't have enough slots to support everything I want to plug into them.