Why does a manufacturer install 4 SSDs in its graphics card? A YouTuber took a look at AMD’s graphics card. MeinMMO explains what’s behind it.
Solid state drives, or SSDs for short, are used as mass storage devices in many computers. SSDs are also installed in the PS4 and PS5. Here they are then mounted on the mainboard or fixed in the housing. SSDs are significantly faster and more powerful than traditional hard drives (HDDs).
But what is the point of installing SSD memory in a graphics card? Anthony Young, editor and writer at Linus Tech Tips, took a look. He also explained why you will no longer find such a graphics card in stores today. We have included the video from Linus Tech Tips for you here:
Who should use an AMD graphics card with 2TB of memory?
What kind of graphics card is it? AMD introduced the Radeon Pro SSG in 2017. SSG stands for Solid State Graphics.
The graphics processor on the graphics card has to process a large amount of data. However, as soon as the memory of the graphics card is full, the data is then moved to the system memory. However, this also reduces performance. This is particularly important when running 8K videos or high-resolution rendering, for example, because a lot of memory is required here.
This is where the Radeon Pro SSG comes into play. Because the 4 SSDs are connected to the GPU via a special PCIe interface. In this way, the graphics card can access the large memory much faster.
What do you need a graphics card for? The Radeon Pro SSG cost $6,999 when it was released. But then as now, very few users are willing to pay thousands of euros for a graphics card. And the Radeon Pro SSG is aimed primarily at professionals and experts. The graphics card should be of particular interest to people who need a lot of memory. These include graphic designers or video editors and only limited gamers.
The graphics card, however, is also a product of its time, explains Anthony Young. Because DDR memory was very expensive at the time of release: AMD’s idea here was to replace the very expensive DDR memory with significantly cheaper flash memory. Because of this you could block significantly more.
In theory, you can install your PC on the graphics card
How fast is the built-in memory? The YouTuber had compared the memory of the AMD graphics card with a Corsair SSD (MP 600). With 14125 MB reading and 6893 MB writing, the memory installed by AMD is significantly faster than the Corsair SSD.
Theoretically, as the YouTuber explains, you can also install your system on the memory of the graphics card without needing additional memory. The graphics card is not officially intended for this. Even if you currently have no chance of a graphics card, you should not necessarily buy this card now.
Another graphics card is also unsuitable for gaming. However, this graphics card is surprisingly an absolute bestseller on Amazon. You can read about why this graphics card is bought and what it can do on MeinMMO:
