MSI First Motherboard Maker to offer USB4 Add-in Card with 100 W USB-PD

[TheLostSwede]

At Computex 2023, MSI was showing off its USB4 100 W Expansion Card—also known as the MS-4489—which is the first officially announced USB4 add-in card in the market. MSI didn't specify the actual chip being used, but we've verified that the card is based on ASMedia's ASM4242 USB4 host controller. Just as with Thunderbolt cards, the MS-4489 needs to be connected internally to the motherboard with a cable that handles some of the communication with interfaces that can be routed over PCIe and this is the reason for the lower pin-header on the card. We're not sure what the USB 2.0 pin-header is for, as on Thunderbolt cards, this would be an input, but the ASM4242 supports native support for USB 2.0, unlike Thunderbolt, but it could be a USB 2.0 output.

What makes this card stand out compared to MSI's Thunderbolt 4 card is that it offers 100 Watt USB PD support on the primary USB-C port, with the secondary port delivering up to 27 Watts of power. As with Thunderbolt add-in cards, the MS-4489 relies on a pair of full-size DP inputs if you want to use DP Alt mode over USB-C to connect displays to the card. To be able to deliver this much power, MSI has added a 6-pin graphics cards style power connector to the card to be able to deliver enough power to the USB-C ports. Another oddity with the card is that it has a physical PCIe x8 slot, but it's only wired up for PCIe x4. This could limit compatibility on motherboards that lack either an open ended PCIe x4 slot or a x16 slot that's wired up for four lanes of PCIe. We're expecting to see more products like this later in the year from all the other motherboard manufacturers and maybe even some third parties.



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[Tek-Check]

There's something odd with this card. If x4 link is PCIe 4.0, this suggests up to 64 Gbps traffic. This mean that each USB4 port cannot push up to 40 Gbps into other peripherals at the same time, right?

 

[TheLostSwede]

There's something odd with this card. If x4 link is PCIe 4.0, this suggests up to 64 Gbps traffic. This mean that each USB4 port cannot push up to 40 Gbps into other peripherals at the same time, right?

Nothing odd, it's by design, since there are no consumer motherboards with PCIe 5.0 slots outside of the x16 slot.
It's still vastly superior to Intel's Thunderbolt 4 solutions which are still using PCIe 3.0.

 

[Tek-Check]

Nothing odd, it's by design, since there are no consumer motherboards with PCIe 5.0 slots outside of the x16 slot.
It's still vastly superior to Intel's Thunderbolt 4 solutions which are still using PCIe 3.0.

Is the link confirmed to be PCIe 4.0 x4?
For DP, is it DP 1.4 or DP 2.1 Alt Mode?

 

[ncrs]

Nothing odd, it's by design, since there are no consumer motherboards with PCIe 5.0 slots outside of the x16 slot.

There are boards like ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E GAMING WIFI (sigh at the name) which can split the x16 into two x8 (physically x16) or x8 and x4 with the remaining x4 going into a second PCIe 5.0 M.2.
Depending on the requirements for GPU bandwidth it's a solution.

 

[Tigerfox]

There's something odd with this card. If x4 link is PCIe 4.0, this suggests up to 64 Gbps traffic. This mean that each USB4 port cannot push up to 40 Gbps into other peripherals at the same time, right?

AFAIK PCIe is full duplex so no worries. You can't transfer 40Gbps over each port simultaneously but how often will that happen. But we will need at leat Gen5x4 for USB4 v2 with 80Gbps in each direction or 120/40.

 

[AusWolf]

Finally, I can block all airflow towards my GPU to have some USB ports with speeds that no device uses ever!

 

[Tek-Check]

You can't transfer 40Gbps over each port simultaneously but how often will that happen

I am curious about bandwidth allocation. If you connect two external USB4 40 Gbps storage drives to each port to copy large movie files from both, how would the chip on AIC allocate transfer speed between the ports? If one can work at 40 Gbps, the other one gets the remaiing 24 Gbps? Or both ports settle on 32 Gbps each?

 

[ypsylon]

It seems that typical Thunderbolt 5-pin header is gone. Bottom header looks a bit like USB3 19-pin. If 9-pin USB2 header is supposedly output instead input then it make sense to use USB3 19-pin for signaling and control. More an more manufacturers dump USB2.0 headers and replacing them with 19-pin-ers.

Shame its not x8 with 4 USB/TB4 ports. Curious why they wired x8 card into x4 mode. Perhaps that's some prototype or little brother of full fat quad USB4 controller.

Anyway, as long as it is universal card - so it doesn't require special proprietary header on the motherboard - I'm all :thumbsup: on this one.

 

[Tek-Check]

Shame its not x8 with 4 USB/TB4 ports. Curious why they wired x8 card into x4 mode. Perhaps that's some prototype or little brother of full fat quad USB4 controller.

It's the spec of the chip - Gen4 x4 upstream and two USB-C downstream ports, with two DP 1.4a ports. x8 interface would be a waste at this point. AsMedia does say it's the first gen chip though.

I'd expect second gen chip to comply with revised USB4 spec, increase PCIe throughput to 64 Gbps per port and introduce DP 2.1 interface at 80 Gbps.

ASM4242 | USB4 Host Controller 40G|ASMedia Technology Inc.

USB4 Host Controller 40G , USB4 Gen 3x2 40Gbps, ASM4242,USB4 Host 40G

www.asmedia.com.tw

 

[BSim500]

Finally, I can block all airflow towards my GPU to have some USB ports with speeds that no device uses ever!

I never did get the "use your PC as an over-engineered high wattage USB charger" things vs simply buying a decent USB charger that you can actually use in different rooms / take with you when you leave the house... "Wait-up guys, I'll just grab my charger" (attempts to shoehorn a full-size ATX case into a rucksack), "Don't worry, this is totally normal for us enthusiast PC builders. In fact I'm building my own laptop right now"...

 

[chrcoluk]

AFAIK PCIe is full duplex so no worries. You can't transfer 40Gbps over each port simultaneously but how often will that happen. But we will need at leat Gen5x4 for USB4 v2 with 80Gbps in each direction or 120/40.

What will need 40Gbps over USB in the first place? Or 100W power for that matter as well.

 

[AusWolf]

What will need 40Gbps over USB in the first place? Or 100W power for that matter as well.

It sounds just as useful to me as PCI-e 5.0... (bragging rights).

 

[The Von Matrices]

I never did get the "use your PC as an over-engineered high wattage USB charger" things vs simply buying a decent USB charger that you can actually use in different rooms / take with you when you leave the house... "Wait-up guys, I'll just grab my charger" (attempts to shoehorn a full-size ATX case into a rucksack), "Don't worry, this is totally normal for us enthusiast PC builders. In fact I'm building my own laptop right now"...

I regularly transfer files to and from my phone. I find it frustrating that I can either have a fast charging capability OR a fast data connection to my PC but not both at the same time. It's an annoyance to have to frequently switch between the external charger and the data cable depending on my priorities at the time. I just want to be able to plug in one cable when I'm at my PC and not have to calculate and plan whether I need to switch to the external charger because the battery otherwise wouldn't have enough charge before I leave. I don't need USB4 capability. USB 3 is fine, but none of the USB 3 ports on my PC are rapid charge.

 

[DrHulkBro]

So, if I'm looking at this right (big if) you've gotta sacrifice an internal USB 3.2 header for certian protocols/controls, as well as, just like Thunderbolt, sacrifice a GPU port just to fully utilized all the this this is supposed to offer?

Maybe I'm being obtusely naive when hoping for an AIC where the chip on the board does all, and any crazy communications are all handled over *gasp.... the PCIe slot. Especially when thing like "PCIe tunneling"are thrown around. Guess it's time to dig into the specs and see how off I am.

It's something I guess though.