Question Question about Gen4 vs Gen5 NVMe drives and GPU's...

[wild0409]

Micro-Star International
PRO A790-P WIFI (MS-7E06)
Intel i9-14900KF
GeForce RTX-4090
Corsair 6000MHz 32.0 GB X 2
Corsair MP600 CORE XT M.2 NVMe 1.8TB Gen4

Hi all. First post here.
I just bought the above computer for my ultimate gamer. So of course, I'm already looking at upgrades to make it even faster. I've been doing some research, and ordered up a 2 TB Gen5 Crucial T705 drive. Much faster, of course, than my current NVMe drive. But after I ordered it, I came across some conversations, some of them here on this forum, that the Gen5 will steal channels from my GPU. Does that apply to all current motherboards? How about the motherboard that I have? Would I be better off sending this Gen5 back and just ordering a faster Gen4? Would I notice a difference? What would YOU do? Now admittedly, I'm no expert on this stuff. I know just enough to get myself into trouble. And if your answers could be dumbed down a bit I would appreciate it. Thanks Guys.

 

[hotaru.hino]

It depends. On my Z790 board, if I use a PCIe 5.0 NVMe drive in the PCIe 5.0 slot, it'll steal lanes from the GPU slot. Your board doesn't seem to do that.

However, there's no real practical performance difference between NVMe drives. I've yet to see any real benefit in gaming between PCIE 3.0 or 4.0. So there certainly wouldn't be any real benefit from 4.0 to 5.0.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

All slots on your motherboard;
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z790-P-WIFI/Specification
meant for M.2 drives are going to run at PCIe4.0x4 at best, so anything above that will be relegated to PCIe4.0x4 so your purchase is moot on that motherboard.

 

[wild0409]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

All slots on your motherboard;
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z790-P-WIFI/Specification
meant for M.2 drives are going to run at PCIe4.0x4 at best, so anything above that will be relegated to PCIe4.0x4 so your purchase is moot on that motherboard.

I was afraid I'd hear that response. Darn. Wish I had found that spec sheet you linked. I wouldn't have had to ask the question in the first place. Well, glad I didn't open it. Back to Amazon it goes. Now to search for the fastest Gen4 available. Any suggestions that would be a significant upgrade from what I have now? How about the Samsung 980 Pro? For gaming.

 

[USAFRet]

Now to search for the fastest Gen4 available. Any suggestions?

Brand and reliability before "fastest".

Any user facing difference will be "sub 1%" difference in day to day use. Blink and you'll miss it.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I was afraid I'd hear that response. Darn. Well, glad I didn't open it. Back to Amazon it goes. Now to search for the fastest Gen4 available. Any suggestions?

Pick your poison

• Samsung 970/980/990
• Crucial T500
• Sabrent Rocket 4
• Western Digital Black SN850X
• Seagate Firecuda 530

 

[35below0]

Micro-Star International
PRO A790-P WIFI (MS-7E06)
Intel i9-14900KF
GeForce RTX-4090
Corsair 6000MHz 32.0 GB X 2
Corsair MP600 CORE XT M.2 NVMe 1.8TB Gen4

Hi all. First post here.
I just bought the above computer for my ultimate gamer. So of course, I'm already looking at upgrades to make it even faster. I've been doing some research, and ordered up a 2 TB Gen5 Crucial T705 drive. Much faster, of course, than my current NVMe drive. But after I ordered it, I came across some conversations, some of them here on this forum, that the Gen5 will steal channels from my GPU. Does that apply to all current motherboards? How about the motherboard that I have? Would I be better off sending this Gen5 back and just ordering a faster Gen4? Would I notice a difference? What would YOU do? Now admittedly, I'm no expert on this stuff. I know just enough to get myself into trouble. And if your answers could be dumbed down a bit I would appreciate it. Thanks Guys.

Ok, here's the answer. Your 4090 cannot fully saturate the PCIe x16 slot. So if an NVMe drive shares lanes with the GPU, the performance "loss" will be 1-3%, if that.

As for PCIe Gen 5 NVMe drives. They're faster than Gen 4 which are faster than Gen 3. But fast is misleading in this case.
The difference will be felt if you have a TON of huge files to move between drives. If you move hundreds of gigs of large files around, every day then you want the speed. If all you do is use the computer normally, you will not feel the difference at all.

This is not like HDD vs SSD or USB 1 vs USB 3.2. This is closer to a car that hits 0-60 in 2.95 vs a car that does it in 2.91. It's there but you don't get a chance to feel it with the exception of moving lots of large files.


Read reviews of NVMe drives, look for reliable drives and look for large capacity. You want your stuff to be safe.
Feel free to ignore speed unless a drive is noted for being slow. Because they will all operate at "blink of an eye" speeds.

 

[wild0409]

Thanks

Ok, here's the answer. Your 4090 cannot fully saturate the PCIe x16 slot. So if an NVMe drive shares lanes with the GPU, the performance "loss" will be 1-3%, if that.

As for PCIe Gen 5 NVMe drives. They're faster than Gen 4 which are faster than Gen 3. But fast is misleading in this case.
The difference will be felt if you have a TON of huge files to move between drives. If you move hundreds of gigs of large files around, every day then you want the speed. If all you do is use the computer normally, you will not feel the difference at all.

This is not like HDD vs SSD or USB 1 vs USB 3.2. This is closer to a car that hits 0-60 in 2.95 vs a car that does it in 2.91. It's there but you don't get a chance to feel it with the exception of moving lots of large files.


Read reviews of NVMe drives, look for reliable drives and look for large capacity. You want your stuff to be safe.
Feel free to ignore speed unless a drive is noted for being slow. Because they will all operate at "blink of an eye" speeds.

Thanks for that info. Very helpful. Maybe I'll just stick with what I have then. What started all this was the Benchmark program I'm using, Passmark PerformanceTest. It shows everything on my system in the 99th Percentile of computers in the world, but only 91% on my hard drive. I was attempting to get that up to 99% as well. Guess that ain't gonna happen without a motherboard swap, and that ain't happening anytime soon. Sooo... Guess I'll just be happy with what I got. Thanks everybody that answered and hopefully some other novice can find this thread useful.

 

[USAFRet]

What started all this was the Benchmark program I'm using, Passmark PerformanceTest. It shows everything on my system in the 99th Percentile of computers in the world, but only 91% on my hard drive. I was attempting to get that up to 99% as well.

Even if you were to get everything at "99%" today, 6 months from now, one or more parts would be below that.
Are you going to change parts 2-3 times a year?

Don't chase artificial numbers.

 

[wild0409]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

All slots on your motherboard;
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z790-P-WIFI/Specification
meant for M.2 drives are going to run at PCIe4.0x4 at best, so anything above that will be relegated to PCIe4.0x4 so your purchase is moot on that motherboard.

Could you or anybody tell me if this motherboard will support 4 tb NVMe drives? I can't seem to find any info on it. Thanks. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z790-P-WIFI/Specification

 

[35below0]

Could you tell me if this motherboard will support 4 tb NVMe drives? I can't seem to find any info on it. Thanks.

M.2 slots do not have a limit on capacity, only physical size. Also a PCIe 3.0 slot is limited to 3.0 speed so a faster PCIe 4.0 drive would run at 3.0 speed.

But other than that, stick any NVMe in the slot. 500Gb, 2Tb, 4Tb... as long as it actualy fits the slot, it will work.
Numbers: 22110/2280/2260/2242 show which size drives are compatible. They are the dimensions in mm. For example 22mm wide and 60mm long, or 80mm long drives would be 2260 and 2280.

 

[wild0409]

M.2 slots do not have a limit on capacity, only physical size. Also a PCIe 3.0 slot is limited to 3.0 speed so a faster PCIe 4.0 drive would run at 3.0 speed.

But other than that, stick any NVMe in the slot. 500Gb, 2Tb, 4Tb... as long as it actualy fits the slot, it will work.
Numbers: 22110/2280/2260/2242 show which size drives are compatible. They are the dimensions in mm. For example 22mm wide and 60mm long, or 80mm long drives would be 2260 and 2280.

Excellent answer. Now I know. Thanks!

 

[Silas Sanchez]

From someone who has a top of the line motherboard and experimented with Gen 4 vs Gen5 nvme.
For gaming there is no practical diff, gen 3 vs 4 yes but again not big enough to really care.
Gen 5 only destroys gen 4 with big file transfers and stuff. But modern games require fast random access like characteristics which is why sata ssds lead to lag on modern games.
So for this kind of perf (no sequential) my samsung 4tb pro gen4 is just as fast as my crucial 4tb gen 5. The crucial is top of the line, but so is samsung.
So go samsung as they have the fastest with these speeds that matter.

 

[wild0409]

From someone who has a top of the line motherboard and experimented with Gen 4 vs Gen5 nvme.
For gaming there is no practical diff, gen 3 vs 4 yes but again not big enough to really care.
Gen 5 only destroys gen 4 with big file transfers and stuff. But modern games require fast random access like characteristics which is why sata ssds lead to lag on modern games.
So for this kind of perf (no sequential) my samsung 4tb pro gen4 is just as fast as my crucial 4tb gen 5. The crucial is top of the line, but so is samsung.
So go samsung as they have the fastest with these speeds that matter.

Thanks for that info. I'm glad you said Samsung because that is what I ordered. This model specifically. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHHFR1LG?tag=bg1-807665-20&th=1 Supposedly this drive pretty much takes the Gen4 slot to its limit. Now I hope it fits in my motherboard and I don't have any issues. If I do, you'll probably see me back here asking more newb questions LOL.