Asrock releases graphics card – on M.2 stick

During the autumn of 2020, the mention of graphics cards is more or less synonymous with a lack of these. It is also synonymous with new additions being substantial donations that occupy 2.5 or 3 card slots in the chassis. Asrock Rack, however, goes against the trend regarding size with the graphics card M2_VGA, where the entire graphics circuit takes up space on a plug-in card of the format M.2-2280.

Anyone thinking about whether the news can be an alternative to the notoriously difficult-to-buy graphics cards in the AMD Radeon RX 6000 or Nvidia Geforce RTX 3000 series will unfortunately have to rethink. The Asrock M2_VGA is equipped with the Silicon Motion SM750 graphics circuit, which handles 2D graphics in a maximum resolution of 1,920 × 1,080 pixels. The current lack of GDDR6 memory is fortunately not a problem as the graphics stick is content with 16 MB DDR memory.

The graphics connector connects to the computer via PCI Express x1 and the image output consists of a VGA port that is mounted in the chassis I / O outputs. Power is supplied via a separate cable that connects to the power supply via a 4-pin connector with a voltage level of 5 V. In addition to small format, the requirements for power supply are also low, as the graphics stick can handle a TDP level of 1.49 watts.

Asrock does not share expected performance levels for 2D rendering with M2_VGA. When the device is connected via PCI Express, it is supported on all motherboards that are equipped with a connection according to the format M.2-2280, and Asrock promises support for both Windows and Linux systems. Products from Asrock Rack are not sold at regular retailers, and are therefore found together with price information at specialist retailers.

Can you come up with a situation where a small energy efficient graphics card for 2D rendering is useful? Or is it another example of funny curiosity rather than useful?