Question Are Z170 old motherboards (PCI gen3 4x) compatible with current M.2 ssd units?

[psaez84]

Hi

I have this motherboard:

GA-Z170-HD3P
https://www.gigabyte.com/es/Motherbo...HD3P-rev-10#ov

PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connector with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer (PCIe NVMe & SATA SSD support)
Fast Onboard Storage with 32Gb/s M.2
GIGABYTE M.2 solution offers considerably faster storage performance and support for both PCIe and SATA interface for M.2 SSD devices.

What will hapen if I connect a current m2 ssd for pci express 4.0 into this old connector? will it decrease speed? maybe will it generate problems?

Thank you.

 

[Misgar]

If you fit a Gen 4 drive into a Gen 3 slot, it will drop down to Gen 3 speeds, but otherwise should work normally.

I've got a Gen 3 x4 drive in an old mobo with only a Gen 3 x2 slot and it works fine, albeit with lower bandwith.

There's always a slight chance an M.2 drive might not be recognised by your BIOS, but for the most part they just work.