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Colorful Debuts iGame Duo SSD: GPU with Two M.2 Drives

AleksandarK

AleksandarK

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At Bilibili World 2025, Colorful quietly introduced a unique all-white version of its iGame Ultra Duo SSD graphics card that combines high-end GPU performance with built-in storage. The card features a two‑fan cooler coated in matte white, which immediately sets it apart from the usual dark designs you see on the market. Although Colorful has not confirmed whether it is based on NVIDIA's new GB206 or GB207 architecture, either RTX 5050 or 5060, the real point of this product is the dual M.2 SSD slots on the back of the compact PCB. Users can simply slide in drives without any extra cables, and the heatsink mounting points are cleverly positioned between the storage bays and the rear I/O bracket.

Thanks to PCIe bifurcation, the card splits a standard x16 slot into eight lanes for the GPU and four lanes for each SSD, so neither graphics nor storage performance is compromised. Given that the PCIe bandwidth is more than enough for this GPU SKU, even an x8 lane is enough for performance to stay intact. By placing SSDs near active cooling, Colorful ensures they stay cool even under heavy workloads. Official specs and pricing are not yet available, but this hybrid design is sure to catch the eye of gamers and content creators looking for a sleek, high-capacity storage build.



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ymdhis said:
This is incredibly useful and needs to become a standard. I'm already doing this but with chinese NVME splitters (it gives you two x4 NVME slots, plus a x8 low profile slot).
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Unless you end up needing heatsinks on them and the CPU cooler gets in the way.
 
AsRock said:
Unless you end up needing heatsinks on them and the CPU cooler gets in the way.
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My first thought... having the NVMe or m.2 slot next to the GPU makes it real hot even with heatsink, can't imagine the temps when placed over the GPU.
 
Pretty nice and gen 5 presumably theoretically it could host four Gen 4 M.2 in terms of the bandwidth. I'm not sure if it works on the bifurcation though on all, but small handful of MB's a few do x8/x8 like my MB, but a lot less are doing x4/x4/x4/x4 at some point I wouldn't be shocked someone were to put a pair of Gen 4 M.2 on a Gen 5 M.2 wired device though if it's possible to do so.
 
PSYCHOPATHiO said:
My first thought... having the NVMe or m.2 slot next to the GPU makes it real hot even with heatsink, can't imagine the temps when placed over the GPU.
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I was curious as well, didn't see a lot of reviews that mentioned thermals except this youtube channel, and in his results there was ~9c difference between using a samsung 980 pro 2tb on the GPU vs on the motherboard. The asus card mounted the m.2 near the power connection side of the card, but im wondering what it would look like under a FLIR camera, theres probably a spot on the heatsink fin stack that could handle a few extra ways of heat. Or you could make some assembly with a ribon cable and tuck the m.2 along the side edge of the gpu cooler housing, with its own heatsink?

But I think a lot of us are in agreement that we'd like this to be standard on the mid tier gpus that only use 8 lanes. And it would be even more interesting on the low end GPUS of the world that only use 4x lanes. Having low end gpus become m.2 adapters as well is a pretty cool way to use a single pcie x16 slot, and an honestly good reason to pick a low end card over a good IGP. And TDPs on low end gpus shouldnt pose an issue with cooling as much as you could encounter with a mid range gpu.
 
IF I were looking for a new mid-low tier GPU (I'm NOT), this (or something similar) would probably be at or near the top of my list, since you can rarely/NEVER have too much storage these days :)
 
Nice to see this becoming more common, always handy to put those unused PCIe lanes to good use.

I think a very, very large market for this would be the RTX Pro cards. There's probably lots of professional videographers and editors that need the professional cards, but would love to have more than the 1 or 2 Gen 5 NVME slots on the consumer motherboards. You'd need to cut the GPU down to 8 lanes since they all come standard with 16, but according to Puget's testing going down to PCIe 5.0 x8 doesn't impact performance in virtually any workload.
 
InVasMani said:
Pretty nice and gen 5 presumably theoretically it could host four Gen 4 M.2 in terms of the bandwidth. I'm not sure if it works on the bifurcation though on all, but small handful of MB's a few do x8/x8 like my MB, but a lot less are doing x4/x4/x4/x4 at some point I wouldn't be shocked someone were to put a pair of Gen 4 M.2 on a Gen 5 M.2 wired device though if it's possible to do so.
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Most AMD boards that have dual x16 slots(which break into dual x8) support bifurcation into x8x4x4 and even for single x16 slot that x8x4x4 mode is supported. Intel might have castrated that feature on certain chipsets. Since most low end GPUs these days are already restricted to x8 slot its good use of additional x8 PCIe bandwidth especially for SFF where you dont have option to add M.2 SSDs easily.
 
Chaitanya said:
Most AMD boards that have dual x16 slots(which break into dual x8) support bifurcation into x8x4x4 and even for single x16 slot that x8x4x4 mode is supported. Intel might have castrated that feature on certain chipsets. Since most low end GPUs these days are already restricted to x8 slot its good use of additional x8 PCIe bandwidth especially for SFF where you dont have option to add M.2 SSDs easily.
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Yeah depends on MB really for both companies, but I think AMD has some added flexibility with PCIE and lanes overall because they support a few more of them. I believe ROG STRIX Z790-H GAMING WIFI is x8/x8 on the PCIE 5.0 slot in the bios. I think their Intel Z790 WS Pro Art board may have been x4/x4/x4/x4 most of their options for LGA1700 were x8/x8 though. I definitely think it's a good use of otherwise wasted bandwidth. Beyond just M.2's they could integrate USB4, 10G, WIFI7 or WIFI 8 when it comes as well.
 
I recently bought one of those Chinese splitters for about 7-8 euros (thanks to Aliexpress coins that you get for free) and the only problem is that obviously the GPU sitting on that splitter gets too tall. A PCIe X16 4.0(less than $20) or 5.0(much more expensive) riser cable is needed and probably the PC case to also offer vertical mounting. Someone could avoid those if they can mount safely the card and only use the video out connections that are still accessible even when the GPU is not aligned with the expansion slot on the PC case. If was I am saying looks confusing, imagine putting a full height graphics card in a PC case that can only accommodate low profile cards. There is also the question with the Chinese splitter, what happens if you use a graphics card that asks for all those 75W the PCIe slot can offer. Those SSDs also want watts. With a card that asks 75W from the PCIe slot, like a GTX 3050 6GB and two NVMe SSDs, that could mean 85W-95W power needs from the PCIe slot? By the way, putting heatsinks on the SSDs while using this approach, is easy.

The above idea that Colorful is demonstrating - and we have seen from other manufacturers also - is obviously the best, the only problem is cost. If Colorful or any other manufacturer price this feature at, let's say, $50, that would mean constantly paying a $50 premium every time the GPU is replaced. This isn't a problem when buying an RTX 5080 or above, but it could be a problem when buying an RX 9060XT or an RTX 5060/RTX 5050 as in Colorful's case. And these kind of mid range(low end?) cards are those that people might need to replace sooner rather than later, so what? Pay $300 for an RTX 5060 and forget those M.2 slots, or pay $300 for an RTX 5050 and get those two M.2 slots? I think it makes more sense to go for the 5060 and if there is a need for more M.2 storage, either replace existing M.2 drives with bigger ones, or use PCIe to NVMe adapters on the other PCIe slots on the motherboard(they cost $3-4 and while they don't offer the whole speed, they will do the job), or if a microATX motherboard is in use, replace that motherboard with a fullATX one.
 
InVasMani said:
Yeah depends on MB really for both companies, but I think AMD has some added flexibility with PCIE and lanes overall because they support a few more of them. I believe ROG STRIX Z790-H GAMING WIFI is x8/x8 on the PCIE 5.0 slot in the bios. I think their Intel Z790 WS Pro Art board may have been x4/x4/x4/x4 most of their options for LGA1700 were x8/x8 though. I definitely think it's a good use of otherwise wasted bandwidth. Beyond just M.2's they could integrate USB4, 10G, WIFI7 or WIFI 8 when it comes as well.
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There are M.2 NICs and SATA controllers available already so for the mini-ITX builds having those extra 2 M.2 slots is a boon. For people building PCs using mATX or ATX boards its not as big of advantage.
 
LastDudeALive said:
Nice to see this becoming more common, always handy to put those unused PCIe lanes to good use.

I think a very, very large market for this would be the RTX Pro cards. There's probably lots of professional videographers and editors that need the professional cards, but would love to have more than the 1 or 2 Gen 5 NVME slots on the consumer motherboards. You'd need to cut the GPU down to 8 lanes since they all come standard with 16, but according to Puget's testing going down to PCIe 5.0 x8 doesn't impact performance in virtually any workload.
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Yea, I am glad to see this happening too, since it will be a great solution for a LOT of average everyday users that don't wanna deal with NAS/Raid/Cloud storage set-ups.

However, all of the video & other pros that I know that have Pro GPU's use computers with not only large amounts of storage internally, but also massive amounts of space available on external drives/NAS's/Raid Arrays and/or cloud services....

As for performance reductions due to cutting the lanes down, yes it has been shown that it doesn't have much effect on VIDEO apps. However, people that do CAD/3D CAMM work will immediately cut your balls/boobs off if you even mention that you are/were thinking about not giving their GPU's every single lane available hehehe :D
 
aleksandark said:
Thanks to PCIe bifurcation, the card splits a standard x16 slot into eight lanes for the GPU and four lanes for each SSD, so neither graphics nor storage performance is compromised.
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Personally, I would prefer a 5070 version of this with 12 lanes to the GPU and two lanes to each SSD. That is a balance I would find agreeable.
 
It's not the first GPU to do this with an NVMe on the rear, the difference it this has TWO.
I'd also speculate it is a 5060 as it has a full X16 slot, the 5050 I think only has an X8 slot, but I could be wrong.
 
InVasMani said:
Yeah depends on MB really for both companies, but I think AMD has some added flexibility with PCIE and lanes overall because they support a few more of them. I believe ROG STRIX Z790-H GAMING WIFI is x8/x8 on the PCIE 5.0 slot in the bios. I think their Intel Z790 WS Pro Art board may have been x4/x4/x4/x4 most of their options for LGA1700 were x8/x8 though. I definitely think it's a good use of otherwise wasted bandwidth. Beyond just M.2's they could integrate USB4, 10G, WIFI7 or WIFI 8 when it comes as well.
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Intel limits bifurcation to x8/x8 on recent consumer desktop chipsets. Older (I think pre 11th gen) supports x8/x4/x4. On workstation chipsets they support x8/x4/x4 and x4/x4/x4/x4 too. AMD doesn't have this limitation, but have different support on some SKUs with iGPUs.
 
Mothertrucker19 said:
It's intel we're talking about, I wouldn't be surprised. But I can definitely imagine that they don't allow more options for their motherboard partners.
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I've installed NVMe cards in workstation PCs that have Intel CPU's that have 8 M.2 slots. That's 16/8. As long as the board supports PCIe bifurcation, AFAIK the lanes can be divided up as needed by the device connected to the slot.
 
My intel board from what I can tell has no burification at all, same with my older intel board as well, I had always assumed was an AMD only feature that was struggling to take off.
 
Some but not all expensive AM5 boards do support 4x4x4x4 on the first slot. This and one before are the only 2 like this but heat would definitely be an issue.
 
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