On my somewhat cramped Micro-ATX motherboard, the M.2 slots for today’s teeny-tiny SSDs are between the PCIe slots…which means that the drives sit right under my graphics card. In terms of thermal management this is completely frickin’ bonkers less than ideal. That goes double if you want to use a PCIe 5.0 drive with optional massive coolers. Asus might have figured out a solution with its latest graphics card design, which lets an M.2 slot piggy-back right on the rear of the graphics card itself.
The Asus GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Dual OC + 2280M.2 SSD Expansion slot (yes, that is its full product name oh my god) does what it says on the box. On the rear of the card is a full-sized 80mm M.2 slot, compatible with up to PCIe 5.0 speeds and protected by an extra heat shield. As PCGamer notes, the rest of the card is more or less identical to other RTX 4060 Ti designs — the “dual” in that gigantic name means dual fans, not dual GPU chips.
The card was revealed earlier this year, but is only now showing up at retailers, specifically the Finnish store Multitronic. It’s going for 560 euro (approximately $595 USD at today’s exchange rate), which is a 30-euro premium over the version of the card not packing a M.2 secret. Presumably the new variant will make its way into other markets soon.
Considering how cramped modern motherboards can get, especially in the smaller sizes, I think this add-on is a genius move from Asus. While not an instant solution — for example, installing an SSD drive on the back of my graphics card right now would also overlap with my chunky CPU air cooler — it opens up a lot of flexibility. That’s especially true if your PC case has a lot of unused vertical space. I’m hoping this turns into a trend.