Asus released a new USB4 PCIe Gen4 x4 card that provides 40Gbps bi-directional I/O bandwidth for USB with display output, versatile daisy chaining, and quick charging for several devices. With this card and a compatible motherboard, you are future-ready for USB4 devices, compatible monitors with DP-ALT mode, and portable devices that take advantage of the 65W quick charging available for both ports.
This USB4 PCIe Gen 4 card has two Type C USB4 ports and DP-IN ports. The USB4 standard supports a bi-directional bandwidth of up to 40Gbps, and the display outputs comply with the DisplayPort 1.4 standard; therefore, it supports 8K if your GPU supports this resolution. The main benefit of using DP 1.4 via USB4 is daisy-chaining between monitors with DP-ALT mode while being able to connect to a few USB4 devices through a single port.
Features
This USB4 card supports I/O with daisy chaining configurations and 65-watt per Type-C port Quick Charge through the ASMedia ASM4242 main controller. Since USB4 supports daisy chaining, you can connect up to five USB4 devices per port. To work with displays, you can connect one 8K display and daisy chain to up to four USB4 devices on a single connector, or dual 4K display to up to three USB4 devices on a single cable.
While this is a plug-and-play add-in card, it needs an internal USB4/ Thunderbolt header, a USB 2.0 header from the motherboard, and a PCIe 6-pin power from the power supply. This limits you to only certain motherboards from both AMD and Intel platforms. Asus provides the necessary internal header cables and DP-IN cables with this card.
Two USB4 Add-In Cards with Two Power Draw Configurations
A couple of months ago, MSI made anMS-4489 USB4 cardwhich uses the same ASM4242 controller, requiring the same headers and an auxiliary power connector from the power supply. The main difference here is that one of its Type-C ports provides up to 100W to power any devices that can take advantage of it, namely notebooks with direct power over USB. The second Type-C provides up to 27W. In contrast, Asus provides 65W equally to both Type-C ports with this add-in card.
Even though two manufacturers are providing USB4 add-in cards using the same controller with the same I/O function, MSI facilitates devices that can draw 100W via USB-DP, while the second Type-C can be used for lower-power draw devices like storage drives. Irrespective of which USB4 add-in card you choose, you are getting the same bi-directional bandwidth, display and daisy-chaining features. But with both cards, you will need the same headers and a 6-pin power connector.
Asus has not made this card available through retail channels yet, and it also hasn’t revealed pricing yet.
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Roshan Ashraf Shaikh has been in the Indian PC hardware community since the early 2000s and has been building PCs, contributing to many Indian tech forums, & blogs. He operated Hardware BBQ for 11 years and wrote news for eTeknix & TweakTown before joining Tom’s Hardware team. Besides tech, he is interested in fighting games, movies, anime, and mechanical watches.
