ASUS teases its RTX 4060 Ti with M.2 slot running Gen5 SSDs and a RTX 4090 as an external GPU

ASUS recently launched its GeForce RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD, which has an M.2 slot on the back, handling either an M.2 SSD or a flagship GeForce RTX 4090 as an external GPU, I guess... awesome to see, though!

8

ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD running RTX 4090 through its M.2 slot (source: ASUS China, Bilibili)

The RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card uses only 8 of the 16 PCIe lanes it has connected to the motherboard, with the integrated M.2 slot on the back of the card adding more functionality to a mid-range GPU. ASUS has room for a full-sized M.2 2280 SSD, with the company making some changes to its card from prototype to retail on the RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD.

ASUS has teased the GPU pushing over 12GB/sec reads from the integrated M.2 slot, thanks to ASUS using an M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 SSD slot on the back of the RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD.

8

8

The M.2 slot on the back of the ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD (source: ASUS China, Bilibili)

If you don't want to use an M.2 SSD on the back of your new RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card, then why not use a $2000+ flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card as an external GPU instead? Right?! Right! From those 8 spare PCIe lanes, the RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD has 4 of them connected to the built-in M.2 slot, allowing for an eGPU to be connected.

This isn't just some mod, with ASUS China Product Manager, Tony Yu, talking about it in a new video. Tony used an ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card with an ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card through the M.2 slot on the back of the card. The RTX 4090 is connected to the RTX 4060 Ti through an M.2 to PCIe Gen4x4 adapter, which turns the RTX 4090 into an external -- and secondary -- GPU. Exotic use of an RTX 4060 Ti, that's for sure.

• Read more: ASUS RTX 4060 Ti with built-in SSD is now available, GPU + SSD combo goodness
• Read more: ASUS RTX 4060 Ti with built-in SSD, interesting GPU + SSD combo

The ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD might connect to your motherboard with a PCIe 4.0 interface, but if the GPU is plugged into a PCIe 5.0 slot on your motherboard, then the M.2 slot on the GPU can take advantage of the full PCIe 5.0 speeds. With a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, the ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD can handle a fully-powered RTX 4060 Ti, the M.2 slot on the back, and a 30MHz boost with some overclocking. Impressive.

ASUS is using large pre-installed thermal pads for the front M.2 drive's PCB, while the GPU comes with two screws and even a screwdriver.

8

Metal backplate on the M.2 slot (source: ASUS China, Bilibili)

Tony also used the ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card with Samsung 2TB 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD alongside the Crucial 4TB T700 PCIe 5.0 SSD. With the Samsung 2TB 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD installed, Tony had 6.75GB/sec of sequential read and 4.8GB/sec sequential wrote performance while running through the ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD.

Furmark stress testing on the GPU was used to get the graphics card running as hot as it could, with the installed Samsung 2TB 980 PRO SSD running at 42C while the RTX 4060 Ti GPU was running at 63C.

8

12GB/sec+ on Gen5 SSD installed on RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD (source: ASUS China, Bilibili)

PCIe 5.0 performance is even more impressive; with the 4TB version of Crucial's T700 PCIe 5.0 SSD installed, the sequential read speeds skyrocketed up to 12.4GB/sec, and sequential writes went up to 11.7GB/sec. The Crucial Gen5 SSD ran a little bit hotter than the Samsung Gen4 SSD, at 50C installed into the RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD.