GeForce RTX 4060 Ti with built-in SSD

A few weeks ago, ASUS revealed a new prototype graphics card based on the NVIDIA RTX 4060 series. This card has a customized DUAL design with a unique addition not usually found on gaming graphics cards. A slot for an M.2 SSD disk is hidden inside.

It's worth noting that incorporating SSDs into graphics cards isn't an entirely new idea. AMD already used the storage as a large buffer in the RadeonPro SSG workstation, but the concept never reached the consumer market. ASUS took a slightly different approach. The SSD drive on their card does not affect the performance of the graphics card, but serves as an adapter for an additional M.2 slot on the motherboard.

ASUS' solution solves two main problems. First, it solves the problem of the NVIDIA RTX 4060 series not taking full advantage of the PCIe interface. All cards based on the AD106 and AD107 GPUs are physically designed to use full slots, but can only use 8 of the 16 available lanes, leaving the remaining lanes electrically disconnected.

The ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card uses all 16 lanes. Compared to the initial prototype, the card has undergone some minor changes. A simple plastic housing for storing the M.2 disk was attached to the back of the card. The design of the printed circuit remains unchanged, as does the basic idea. Their layout allows them to make access to the SSD very easy and for the SSD to take advantage of the graphics card's cooling system during operation.

The card is already available for purchase in Finland at a price of 559 euros, which is 90 euros higher than the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB version without SSD and only 10 euros cheaper than the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB version. A non-OC version should be available soon, but for now it doesn't look like we can get a similar concept with any other graphics card.

This concept is undoubtedly interesting and would be even more promising if similar ideas were explored by other manufacturers.