[SOLVED] PCIe 3x 4 vs PCI3 3 x 16

[DPayer]

One of my SSD drives is NVMe PCIe 3 x 16. An Intel Optane 256GB. I love it. I want more storage tho. Looking at a 1TB SSD NVMe drive. But here's my question. Doesn't seem that PCIe 3 x 16 drives are made anymore. All the ones I see are 3 x 4. I suppose that's ok but here's my reasoning for asking. Wouldn't a PCIe 3 x 16 have a wider pipe than the 3 x 4 and hence be able to send more data? I liken it to a highway... Wanna take a 4 lane or a 16 lane highway? I know I'm simplistic in my thinking since I know very little beyond what I read. Clearly the engineers don't see it the way I do. And maybe the speed difference between the two is a toss up. Anyone know or have any sage wisdom to enlighten this Padawan?

 

[Lutfij]

I don't know where you got PCIe 3.0 x16 but the drive you have is a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD. In fact they were never made, the highest in the M.2 PCIe3.0 all take up x4 lanes. It's only until PCIe 4.0 came along is when speeds got higher.

 

[mdd1963]

it's a PCI-e 3.0 x4 lane drive, putting it in any more than a PCI-e x4 slot (a slot smaller than an X8 or X16 slot) is a waste of time...

 

[DPayer]

I used HWinfo64 to find out. I have a pic I took with gyazo. Won't let me share the link or post the pic but it clearly says PCIe 3 x 16

 

[popatim]

You can host the link on an image sharing site, such as imgur, and then link us to it here.

As far as i know, Intel did not even make an Add-in card that was x16. Can you get the model info off of the label for us too?