Why does a manufacturer install 4 SSDs in its graphics card? A YouTuber has taken a look at the graphics card from AMD. MeinMMO explains what it’s all about.
Solid State Drives or SSDs are used as mass storage in many computers. SSDs are also installed in the PS4 and PS5. Here, they are mounted on the motherboard or secured in the case. SSDs are significantly faster and more powerful than traditional hard drives (HDDs).
But what is the benefit of installing SSD storage in a graphics card? Anthony Young, editor and writer at Linus Tech Tips, has taken a look at this. He also explained why you won’t find such a graphics card available for purchase today. We have embedded the video from Linus Tech Tips here:
Who should use an AMD graphics card with 2 TB storage?
What kind of graphics card is this? AMD introduced the Radeon Pro SSG in 2017. SSG stands for Solid State Graphics.
The graphics processor on the graphics card has to process large amounts of data. However, once the graphics card’s memory is full, the data is then moved to the system memory. This leads to a drop in performance. This is particularly important when working with 8K videos or high-resolution rendering, as a lot of memory is needed.
This is where the Radeon Pro SSG comes into play. The 4 SSDs are connected to the GPU via a special PCIe interface. This allows the graphics card to access the large memory much faster.
What do you need such a graphics card for? The Radeon Pro SSG cost $6,999 at release. However, then as now, very few users are willing to pay thousands of euros for a graphics card. With the Radeon Pro SSG, the focus was primarily on professionals and experts. The graphics card was mainly intended for those who need a lot of memory, such as graphic designers or video editors, and only to a lesser extent gamers.
However, the graphics card is also a product of its time, explains Anthony Young. At the time of release, DDR memory was very expensive: AMD’s idea was to replace the very expensive DDR memory with significantly cheaper flash memory. This would allow for much more to be installed.
Theoretically, you could install your system on the graphics card
How fast is the installed memory? The YouTuber compared the memory of the AMD graphics card with an SSD from Corsair (MP 600). The memory used by AMD is significantly faster than the SSD from Corsair, reading at 14125 MB and writing at 6893 MB.
Theoretically, the YouTuber explains, you could install your system on the graphics card’s memory without needing additional storage. However, the graphics card is not officially intended for this purpose. Even if you currently have no chance of getting a graphics card, you shouldn’t necessarily buy this card now.
Another graphics card is also unsuitable for gaming. However, this graphics card is surprisingly a bestseller on Amazon. Why this graphics card is purchased and what it can do can be read on MeinMMO:
The currently best-selling graphics card on Amazon is actually not suitable for gaming
