Friday, December 6th 2024
MAXSUN Designs Arc B580 GPU with Two M.2 SSDs, Putting Leftover PCIe Lanes to Good Use
Thanks to the discovery of VideoCardz, we get a glimpse of MAXSUN's latest Arc 580 GPU with not only a GPU but extra room for two additional M.2 SSDs. The PCIe connector on the Intel Arc B580 has x16 physical pins but runs at PCIe 4.0 x8 speeds. Intel verified it runs only x8 lanes instead of the full x16 slot, leaving x8 lanes unsued. However, MAXSUN thought of a clever way to put the leftover x8 lanes to good use by adding two PCIe x4 M.2 SSDs to thelatest triple-fan iCraft B580 SKU. Power delivery for the M.2 drives comes directly from the graphics card, which is made possible by the GPU's partial PCIe lane utilization. This configuration could prove particularly valuable for compact builds or systems with limited motherboard storage options.
Interestingly, the SSD pair appears to have its own thermal enclosure, which acts as a heatsink. Having constant airflow from the GPU's fans, the M.2 SSD configuration should be able to maximize the full bandwidth of the SSDs without thermals throttling the SSD read/write speeds. The design follows in the footsteps of AMD's Radeon Pro SSG, which introduced integrated storage in workstation cards with PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots. Back then, it was mainly a target for workstation users. However, MAXSUN has envisioned gamers unusually expanding their storage space now. The pricing of the card and availability date remains a mystery.
Source:
VideoCardz
Interestingly, the SSD pair appears to have its own thermal enclosure, which acts as a heatsink. Having constant airflow from the GPU's fans, the M.2 SSD configuration should be able to maximize the full bandwidth of the SSDs without thermals throttling the SSD read/write speeds. The design follows in the footsteps of AMD's Radeon Pro SSG, which introduced integrated storage in workstation cards with PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots. Back then, it was mainly a target for workstation users. However, MAXSUN has envisioned gamers unusually expanding their storage space now. The pricing of the card and availability date remains a mystery.
45 Comments on MAXSUN Designs Arc B580 GPU with Two M.2 SSDs, Putting Leftover PCIe Lanes to Good Use
Ye,nah,ye,nah,ye,nah,nah mate:
The GPU did not require 12 lanes of PCIE ,thus why they only went for one m.2. It was x8 PCIe lane GPU and 4lanes m.2. Had they done another model with 2 X4 lanes PCIe for 2 m.2 paralel to GPU(on same board)...,plus it was a 4050(I almost meant 4060).
several le:ortho, forum post command functions,more ortho.
Hopefully this one won't have to worry about the floods & storms, hehehe :D
But anyways, I like the idea, IF it works, and depending on what, if any, driver support it will require, cause we all know about Team Blueball's top-notch, outstanding drivers...
Intel only permits x8+x8 so it would require some PCIe chip on the board? (that's why the ASUS prototype of the RTX 4060 could only handle a single NVMe SSD)
I do not see the demand for it.
Many mainboards have a few electrical lanes which can than be configured for those two or three 16 mechanical slots.
It's just a bad mainboard design when you can not use all lanes properly when you just insert a 8 electrical lane graphic card
8 electrical slots for that graphic card just implies low range 720p, medium 1080p card. Some will argue, but GTA V which is 10 years old runs in 1440p.
If I were to buy one such card the chances of the future replacement having this feature too are fairly slim. So,.....bugger that!!!
It's definitely something to research before you buy this kind of card, but the concept is great.
Saves someone from having to buy and figure out how to mount one of these:
MAXSUN RX6500XT 8GB 3xM.2gen4, when? :laugh:
It would require your SSDs to be the same PCIe revision as the video card which could be an issue should something like this be implemented in a higher performance card (thinking a card that would require PCIe 5.0 x8 bandwidth which would require PCIe 5.0 SSDs), but for low-mid range should be fine.edit: the only limitation is maximum slot speed.Only when you're splitting the existing lanes, which is what this video card is doing.The CPU dictates what bifurcation is possible, but the motherboard definitely has to have the controls implemented (I've seen both manual and automatic).Z890 supports x8x4x4 so I would assume all of the lower tier chipsets whenever they come out will as well since the capability comes from the CPU.
AMD can do x4x4x4x4, but I'm not familiar enough with their platforms to know if that includes x8x4x4 though it would make sense if it could.
www.asus.com/support/faq/1037507/