Question Gen 5 NVME Motherboards

[jdwclemson]

I'm looking at Tom's top motherboards, but unfortunately not all of them have a gen 5.0 NVME slot and the other features that contribute to high end gaming performance. I am am neutral between getting a i7-13700K and 7700X CPU, although AMD seems to be more cost-performance effective as well as offering cooler temperature and lower power. Unfortunately most of Tom's top recommended motherboards seem to only support gen 4 m.2 slots and its doesn't seem to be a specific feature addressed. I can certainly appreciate why it might not be the top feature in many cases, but for longevity, it is important in my case Please provide recommendations on the most cost effective intel or AMD motherboard that will support gen 5 NVME while offering longevity in the other areas that matter as well.

Note on gen 5.0 SSDs: While gen 5 SSDs are still not cost effective, even for high end gaming purposes, I try to make sure my motherboard will last 3-5 years and there is reason to believe that the benefits of gen 5 SSDs will increase by that time. I plan to start with a gen 4 SSD, but would like to add a gen 5 NVME when prices drop and games start to benefit from it, without needing a whole new system.

 

[Gam3r01]

What sort of workload are you expecting that you think Gen5 would provide any sort of benefit?
Stacking numbers on paper means nothing if your use case doesent take advantage of it.
Gaming is an example of a workload that does not greatly benefit from unnecessarily high storage speeds.

 

[USAFRet]

high end gaming performance

For gaming, there is zero difference between Gen 3, 4, 5.
Tiny difference over SATA III SSD.

The jump from HDD to solid state was huge.
Between various flavors of SSD, not so much.

 

[jdwclemson]

What sort of workload are you expecting that you think Gen5 would provide any sort of benefit?
Stacking numbers on paper means nothing if your use case doesent take advantage of it.
Gaming is an example of a workload that does not greatly benefit from unnecessarily high storage speeds.

I agree, which is why I specifically addressed this in my initial post so that people would understand that it is not a matter of immediate need for gen 5. While most games will not benefit today, Direct Storage, higher performing drives, and lower gen 5 prices may change the equation over the next few years. I don't even plan to buy a gen 5 SSD for my latest build at first, but I would like to have the option to add one the future without having to install a whole new system on a new motherboard. I typically buy a new motherboard and CPU meant to last 3-5 years, and only carry out simple upgrades such as RAM or GPU until I get a new motherboard at rebuild from scratch. While I do not typically see "future proofing" as being necessary or cost effective, I am willing to pay more in this case so that I do not have to go through the lengthy process of a full system rebuild sooner than needed. I fully understand if this is not feature that you and many other people value at this time, I just ask that you respect that I may have different values or requirements in my situation and am seeking recommendations from people who can advise on cost effective quality motherboards with at least one slot for gen 5 NVME.

 

[jdwclemson]

For gaming, there is zero difference between Gen 3, 4, 5.
Tiny difference over SATA III SSD.

The jump from HDD to solid state was huge.
Between various flavors of SSD, not so much.

I agree. While real life gaming performance of today has minimal if any benefit between the latest NVME SSD generations, however unlikely you may consider it to be, there is potential for bigger gains in the future. For example, without going into a debate about the 'console wars', Playstation 5 has performance benefits attributable to the faster gen 4 SSD it uses. Even if those benefits do not translate to PC gaming today, I am simply anticipating that we 'may' see similar benefits of faster storage speed in the future. Even today, there are some benefits related to faster load times, even if rarely beneficial to games. While it is uncertain, I am willing to pay a reasonable amount more for a motherboard that offers the ability to support a gen5 SSD so I can add one if that time comes.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

For gaming, there is zero difference between Gen 3, 4, 5.
Tiny difference over SATA III SSD.

The jump from HDD to solid state was huge.
Between various flavors of SSD, not so much.

Yep.

My board is Gen 5 for the 1st m.2 as well as the GPU... but that honestly played no part in my purchase decision at all. I just wanted a reasonably priced AM5 board for ease of CPU upgrades down the road.

I don't notice any speed difference in my Gen 3 and Gen 4 m.2 drives although I probably will when I replace my 2 media storage HDDs with the new SATA III SSDs later this evening. 🤣

As far as a desire to get a Gen 5 SSD... there is none.

 

[jdwclemson]

Yep.

My board is Gen 5 for the 1st m.2 as well as the GPU... but that honestly played no part in my purchase decision at all. I just wanted a reasonably priced AM5 board for ease of CPU upgrades down the road.

I don't notice any speed difference in my Gen 3 and Gen 4 m.2 drives although I probably will when I replace my 2 media storage HDDs with the new SATA III SSDs later this evening. 🤣

As far as a desire to get a Gen 5 SSD... there is none.

Travis, you're so close to providing actual useful information here! All you have to do now is let me know what AM5 board you got. If you want to be really helpful, you can share why you picked it, other than it being reasonably priced.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Travis, you're so close to providing actual useful information here! All you have to do now is let me know what AM5 board you got. If you want to be really helpful, you can share why you picked it, other than it being reasonably priced.

MSI Mag x670e Tomahawk WiFi

$309.99... it's MSI... who I've used for every PC I've ever built. It's black with no RGB... 4 m.2 slots with the previously mentioned Gen 5 support (although not really a factor as said)... well built... VRM... etc... and it had good reviews.

Guru3D review

I'm quite happy with it.

 

[CeltPC]

My motherboard has two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots and two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. I have 2 NVME slots that will likely sit empty for a year or so, when 1 may be filled with a Gen 5 drive - depending on how the products and prices mature. A 4th slot will probably never be filled, as it would mean some PCIe slot lane sharing.

For example I have a total of 3 PCIe slots:
2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (supports x16 & x8/x4 modes)
1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (supports x4 mode).

However, "When M.2_3 is occupied with an SSD device, PCIEX16_1 will run x8 only".

When buying an AM5 board it is important to know how the lanes are shared, not only between the NVME slots but between those and the PCIe slots to avoid disappointment. I am happy with this on my MB, but some brands and models are really potentially hobbled by their unacceptable lane sharing schemes.

Just be sure to think through your future storage requirements / needs to make sure you don't get any nasty surprises.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

When buying an AM5 board it is important to know how the lanes are shared, not only between the NVME slots but between those and the PCIe slots to avoid disappointment. I am happy with this on my MB, but some brands and models are really potentially hobbled by their unacceptable lane sharing schemes.

Just be sure to think through your future storage requirements / needs to make sure you don't get any nasty surprises.

Good point... and since you brought it up I'll go ahead and say with regards to this board that the lane sharing really isn't an issue. I have my 4 m.2 990 Gen 4s on the board... and the 4 m.2 970 Gen 3's in the Gen 3 enclosure... which I have plugged into the 3rd slot with a riser cable because that slot is blocked by the GPU and because using the open 4th slot would share bandwidth with the 4th m.2 drive.

Not a huge deal to work around and no such shared bandwidth restrictions with the 2x 870 SATA III drives.

With 32TB in SSD storage I'm good. 🤣 🤣 🤣

 

[jdwclemson]

My motherboard has two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots and two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. I have 2 NVME slots that will likely sit empty for a year or so, when 1 may be filled with a Gen 5 drive - depending on how the products and prices mature. A 4th slot will probably never be filled, as it would mean some PCIe slot lane sharing.

For example I have a total of 3 PCIe slots:
2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (supports x16 & x8/x4 modes)
1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (supports x4 mode).

However, "When M.2_3 is occupied with an SSD device, PCIEX16_1 will run x8 only".

When buying an AM5 board it is important to know how the lanes are shared, not only between the NVME slots but between those and the PCIe slots to avoid disappointment. I am happy with this on my MB, but some brands and models are really potentially hobbled by their unacceptable lane sharing schemes.

Just be sure to think through your future storage requirements / needs to make sure you don't get any nasty surprises.

Very helpful response! What motherboard are you using? I use a powerful GPU, and I think that a 4TB gen 4 NVME today will suffice for today and I'll plan to add an additional 2TB gen 5 NVME later on. Would that result with and bandwidth limitations?

 

[CeltPC]

Very helpful response! What motherboard are you using? I use a powerful GPU, and I think that a 4TB gen 4 NVME today will suffice for today and I'll plan to add an additional 2TB gen 5 NVME later on. Would that result with and bandwidth limitations?

ASUS ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WiFi | AMD Ryzen 9 7900X You can look at my signature for all of my rig's components.

As to whether you would have any issues with limitations, that is exactly what you need to research for each motherboard you consider for purchase, as they are NOT all alike. In my case, I could run one Gen 5 NVME and two gen 4 without any bandwidth sharing.

However, if I filled my last Gen 5 slot as well, then I would be sharing bandwidth with my 1st PCIe slot. I don't plan on doing so, though the penalty in performance for running a graphics card at 8x is not as much as some believe. I just want all components running at their best.

I would also not limit yourself to choices on "Tom's top recommended motherboards", which is just one person's opinion. You may well find the best motherboard for you is not even on that list. Look at the reviews of others as well.

 

[CeltPC]

Good point... and since you brought it up I'll go ahead and say with regards to this board that the lane sharing really isn't an issue. I have my 4 m.2 990 Gen 4s on the board... and the 4 m.2 970 Gen 3's in the Gen 3 enclosure... which I have plugged into the 3rd slot with a riser cable because that slot is blocked by the GPU and because using the open 4th slot would share bandwidth with the 4th m.2 drive.

Not a huge deal to work around and no such shared bandwidth restrictions with the 2x 870 SATA III drives.

With 32TB in SSD storage I'm good. 🤣 🤣 🤣

LOL, yes, I should say that "32TB in SSD storage" is indeed more than good!

 

[sonofjesse]

I purchased a B650E-F it has a Gen 5 slot. Latest bios gives you "half" the boot times as previous BIOS.

Each manual will tell you what it supports, so you can find quite a few boards that support Gen 5.

4TB drives are coming down!!

I don't not see any big leap in the next 3-5 years using Gen IV vs Gen V.

Now once Gen 10 gets here and everything is cooled by liquid nitrogen I hope things speed up (joke hahah)

i remember going from Gen 3 and to Gen 4 (980 pro) and zero difference and just a waste of money. (i was upgrading anyway, but still)

 

[thestryker]

If PCIe 5.0 SSD is really important to you I'm not sure I'd look at Intel right now as you'll be splitting your PCIe bandwidth to feed the SSD. Unlike AMD they don't have a dedicated PCIe 5.0 link from the CPU for SSDs just a PCIe 4.0 one.

FWIW I don't think PCIe 5.0 SSDs will ever serve any purpose on the client side of things unless you have specific workloads that need massive sequential.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

If PCIe 5.0 SSD is really important to you I'm not sure I'd look at Intel right now as you'll be splitting your PCIe bandwidth to feed the SSD. Unlike AMD they don't have a dedicated PCIe 5.0 link from the CPU for SSDs just a PCIe 4.0 one.

FWIW I don't think PCIe 5.0 SSDs will ever serve any purpose on the client side of things unless you have specific workloads that need massive sequential.

Yeah just got rid of my 2 HDDs (12TB and 10TB) that I used for mass media storage in favor of a pair of 8TB SATA III drives. I moved about 5 TB of data from the HDDs to my m.2 SSDs temporarily... which took a few hours at 150-200MB/sec (LOL) and then after installing the new drives I copied all the data back... and it was copying the data at something ridiculous like 1.2GB/sec... which honestly is all I ever see myself needing.

I don't move bulk amounts of data except in cases like this when I am setting up new drives. My board supports Gen 5 but it's not a pressing need.