Asus Demos an RTX 4090 Running on a GPU's M.2 Slot

Asus has begun offering an RTX 4060 Ti GPU with a built-in M.2 slot for an SSD. The logic here is the card only uses 8 PCI Express lanes, while the slot it uses on the motherboard offers 16 lanes. That leaves 8 empty lanes, which is perfect for an M.2 SSD since those typically only use 4 lanes, so there's plenty of bandwidth available. Now an Asus employee has taken this concept to the extreme by running an RTX 4090 through the M.2 slot just to show that it's possible, despite being wholly impractical.

The Asus employee is Tony Yu, who is the company's product manager in China. Tony posted a video of his escapades on the video-sharing service Bilibili. In the video he demonstrates that the M.2 slot on the GPU is essentially a PCIe Gen 4 slot that can be used for any device. He began by attaching a PCIe Gen 5 SSD and showing it offers almost 7GB/s of bandwidth, which is expected for a PCIe Gen 4 interface. The SSD also ran at about 50C according to Wccftech, confirming an SSD won't overheat despite being nestled in the GPU's backplate; a legitimate concern given how toasty GPUs can get these days.

The RTX 4090 was connected to the RTX 4060 Ti via an M.2 to PCIe Gen 4 adapter cable. Credit: Tony Yu

Tony then showed the flexibility of the interface by running an RTX 4090 through it using an M.2 to PCIe Gen 4 adapter, which we didn't even know was a thing. Amazingly, it seems to run just fine, with the GPU cranking out 150 frames-per-second running Cyberpunk 2077. However, it should be noted that only a card like the RTX 4090 could really accomplish this feat since it's so powerful. Of the unused 8 PCIe lanes, 4 are reserved for the M.2 slot. That means the 4090 is running on just 4 lanes, so not an ideal scenario for most GPUs. Still, it obviously works, making for a fun proof of concept.

Asus includes a top-plate that covers the SSD to improve cooling and clean up the look of it. Credit: Asus

The RTX 4060 Ti with embedded SSD slot is also an interesting concept, though we're not sure how popular it will be with the general market. Its location on top of the GPU would make swapping SSDs much easier than having to yank one out of a slot on the motherboard, but it's not a common practice these days. Still, it does make it easier to add an SSD to the system as you could do so without having to remove anything from your machine.