[SOLVED] Upgrading to PCIe Gen 4 from an i9 10850K to i9 11900K, and 970 EVO Plus m.2 to 980 PRO m.2. Worth it for the price?

Apr 3, 2021
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I just saw my Asus Z490-E motherboard has a BIOS update that allows it to accept 11th gen Intel CPUs, so it got me thinking.

The upgrade will cost around $750. The read/write speeds with the Samsung 980 PRO m.2 on a gen 4 system will be about twice as fast as my 970 EVO Plus on a gen 3 system.

I mainly just game on this PC, but would it be worth the price? I could still sell my used 10850K for around $300 so that would cushion the cost a little.
 
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Solution
would it be worth the price?
1st - i9 10850K to i9 11900K - is a downgrade (not upgrade). You'd be downgrading from 10core/20thread cpu to 8core/16thread cpu.
2nd - Asus Z490-E is PCIE 3.0 motherboard. You'd have to upgrade motherboard to Z590 also.

3rd - storage upgrade from 970 evo to 980 pro will give you zero impact on gaming performance. Game levels may load slightly faster, but that's all.

"would it be worth the price?" - I think you can answer it yourself. Costs significantly, gives you nothing.

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
I just saw my Asus Z490-E motherboard has a BIOS update that allows it to accept 11th gen Intel CPUs, so it got me thinking.

The upgrade will cost around $750. The read/write speeds with the Samsung 980 PRO m.2 on a gen 4 system will be about twice as fast as my 970 EVO Plus on a gen 3 system.

I mainly just game on this PC, but would it be worth the price? I could still sell my used 10850K for around $300 so that would cushion the cost a little.
Not for storage benchmsrk speed. Real world will be unnoticable.
 
would it be worth the price?
1st - i9 10850K to i9 11900K - is a downgrade (not upgrade). You'd be downgrading from 10core/20thread cpu to 8core/16thread cpu.
2nd - Asus Z490-E is PCIE 3.0 motherboard. You'd have to upgrade motherboard to Z590 also.

3rd - storage upgrade from 970 evo to 980 pro will give you zero impact on gaming performance. Game levels may load slightly faster, but that's all.

"would it be worth the price?" - I think you can answer it yourself. Costs significantly, gives you nothing.
 
Solution
Apr 3, 2021
12
2
15
1st - i9 10850K to i9 11900K - is a downgrade (not upgrade). You'd be downgrading from 10core/20thread cpu to 8core/16thread cpu.
2nd - Asus Z490-E is PCIE 3.0 motherboard. You'd have to upgrade motherboard to Z590 also.

3rd - storage upgrade from 970 evo to 980 pro will give you zero impact on gaming performance. Game levels may load slightly faster, but that's all.

"would it be worth the price?" - I think you can answer it yourself. Costs significantly, gives you nothing.
So upgrading the Z490-E BIOS to accept an 11900K wouldn't allow you to take advantage of 4.0?

https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z490-e-gaming-model/helpdesk_bios

Seems borderline pointless to put a PCIe 4.0 capable CPU in the motherboard if it won't be able to do anything 4.0, but they have a newer BIOS version for it.
 
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So upgrading the Z490-E BIOS to accept an 11900K wouldn't allow you to take advantage of 4.0?
Why would you think that?

Did you see anywhere in board specification, that it would support PCIE 4.0 mode?
Did you see anywhere in BIOS update description, that it would enable PCIE 4.0 mode?

PCIE 4.0 compatibility obviously requires modified board design.
AMD had a similar issue with newer cpus on older boards. One BIOS update enabled PCIE 4.0 support. Didn't work so well. Next BIOS update had to remove PCIE 4.0 support.
 
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Apr 3, 2021
12
2
15
Why would you think that?

Did you see anywhere in board specification, that it would support PCIE 4.0 mode?
Did you see anywhere in BIOS update description, that it would enable PCIE 4.0 mode?

PCIE 4.0 compatibility obviously requires modified board design.
AMD had a similar issue with newer cpus on older boards. One BIOS update enabled PCIE 4.0 support. Didn't work so well. Next BIOS update had to remove PCIE 4.0 support.

Intel obviously is choosing not to go through all that. Want PCIE 4.0 ? Then get a new board.
Intel-Rocket-Lake-Desktop-CPU_-ASUS-Z490-Motherboards-PCIe-Gen-4.0-NVMe-SSD-_3.png


From the Asus site. So apparently at least the GPU will be able to utilize 4.0?
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Linus did a SATA3 vs 3.0x4 vs 4.0x4 side-by-side blind-test a while ago and nobody could successfully tell which was which for gaming. The type of SSD interface makes practically no difference in current games, you just need any decent SSD. This may change in a few years if DirectStorage catches on and 4.0x4 SSDs will likely be far more affordable by then with 5.0x4 also being an option at that point.

If your primary use is gaming, I wouldn't worry about 4.0x4 for a while.
 
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