ASRock Ultra M.2 limiting video card?

[firebirdude]

ASRock Extreme6AC motherboard and Radeon R9 ....280 I think? Intel i7-4790K CPU.

Looking to add a Samsung 970 Evo NVMe PCI-E SSD into the Ultra M.2 slot. From all I've read, that Ultra M.2 slot shares in the 16 PCI-E lanes and SLI is no longer possible. That's fine. I'll never SLI this machine. But is my current GPU using all 16 lanes? And will installing an SSD in the Ultra M.2 port take lanes from it to where I'll notice a reduction in GPU performance? It's not exactly a new high-end GPU, so I need all the frames I can get out of it. lol

 

[Ztdutxjgxgtu]

1st time hearing that,
Usually m.2 will disable sata ports on new mobo, not sure old ones.
But if you are sooooo concerned, you can grab a m.2 to pcie x4 adapter for few bucks

 

[why_wolf]

No it wont. Even the top tier GPUs don't use all the bandwidth 16x provides. It's highly unlikely you'll notice any difference.

 

[firebirdude]

1st time hearing that,
Usually m.2 will disable sata ports on new mobo, not sure old ones.
But if you are sooooo concerned, you can grab a m.2 to pcie x4 adapter for few bucks

The regular M.2 slot is shared with some SATA ports. The Ultra M.2 is PCI-E 3.0 directly from the CPU, as I read it.

No it wont. Even the top tier GPUs don't use all the bandwidth 16x provides. It's highly unlikely you'll notice any difference.

Thank you. But wouldn't it then be 8X/8X after the SSD is installed?

 

[Calvin7]

single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE3); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE3) / x4 (PCIE4))

That would require dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE3). That means you need those two PCIe slots occupied. Nothing to do with SSD.

 

[firebirdude]

single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE3); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE3) / x4 (PCIE4))

That would require dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE3). That means you need those two PCIe slots occupied. Nothing to do with SSD.

Thank you, but I believe you're incorrect. The ASRock Ultra M.2 slot uses PCIE 3.0 lanes direct from the processor. So I think I'll be forced to run X8/X8. And the million dollar question would be "Will I notice a degradation in GPU performance from moving to X8 from X16?"

And it looks like I've found my answer. Bottom half of this page:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/8045/asrock-z97-extreme6-review-ultra-m2-x4-tested-with-xp941/11