[SOLVED] AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Gen 4?

Solution
Gen 4 what? PCIe? All Zen 3 processors use PCIe 4.0.

Processor generation? You could argue sure, because technically there was a Zen+ generation, so Zen 3 is the 4th generation of the Zen microarchitecture. And if you're wondering if there's a way to determine if the 5950X is a Zen 3, they all are. If they aren't, AMD has a lot of explaining to do.
Gen 4 what? PCIe? All Zen 3 processors use PCIe 4.0.

Processor generation? You could argue sure, because technically there was a Zen+ generation, so Zen 3 is the 4th generation of the Zen microarchitecture. And if you're wondering if there's a way to determine if the 5950X is a Zen 3, they all are. If they aren't, AMD has a lot of explaining to do.
 
Solution

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
uhhh no. Zen 1, 1+, and 2 are pcie 3.0 zen 3 is gen 4
Uhh no.
Zen is Gen 1, pcie 3.0
Zen+ is Gen 2, pcie 3.0
Zen 2 is Gen 3, pcie 4.0
Zen 3 is Gen 4, pcie 4.0

How much pcie depends entirely on the motherboard chipset. There's a big difference between an X570 pcie 4.0 capability and a B550 pcie 4.0 capability.

X570 have 24 pcie 4.0 lanes coming from the cpu. 16x are used for the gpu, 4x for a m.2 and a pcie 4 x4 goes to the chipset. The chipset has pcie 4.0 x16 but they are used in a configuration determined by the motherboard manufacturer.

B550 has 20 pcie 4.0. It uses x16 for a gpu and 4x for an m.2 but the chipset only has pcie 3.0 x4 .The 3.0 x4 pcie lanes either go to a 2nd m.2 or a bottom pcie slot.

So doesn't matter if you stick a 5950x or 3700x in a B550, you still only get 1x Gen4 NVMe at pcie 4.0, any other M.2 slots are stuck for Gen3, pcie 3.0 NVMe. You'd need an X570 to use 2 or more Gen4 NVMe drives at pcie 4.0

X470 are pcie 3.0 and on down becomes a mix of pcie 3.0 and pcie 2.0
 
Last edited:

jacob249358

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Sep 8, 2021
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Uhh no.
Zen is Gen 1, pcie 3.0
Zen+ is Gen 2, pcie 3.0
Zen 2 is Gen 3, pcie 4.0
Zen 3 is Gen 4, pcie 4.0

How much pcie depends entirely on the motherboard chipset. There's a big difference between an X570 pcie 4.0 capability and a B550 pcie 4.0 capability.

X570 have 24 pcie 4.0 lanes coming from the cpu. 16x are used for the gpu, 4x for a m.2 and a pcie 4 x4 goes to the chipset. The chipset has pcie 4.0 x16 but they are used in a configuration determined by the motherboard manufacturer.

B550 has 20 pcie 4.0. It uses x16 for a gpu and 4x for an m.2 but the chipset only has pcie 3.0 x4 .The 3.0 x4 pcie lanes either go to a 2nd m.2 or a bottom pcie slot.

So doesn't matter if you stick a 5950x or 3700x in a B550, you still only get 1x Gen4 NVMe at pcie 4.0, any other M.2 slots are stuck for Gen3, pcie 3.0 NVMe. You'd need an X570 to use 2 or more Gen4 NVMe drives at pcie 4.0

X470 are pcie 3.0 and on down becomes a mix of pcie 3.0 and pcie 2.0
whoops I used gen and pcie interchangeably. Thought he was saying pcie gen (X). My bad guys