Where did PCI Express 3.0 go?

[hardware]

My Asrock Z77 OC Formula board has the following specification:
2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4: single at x16 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4) or dual at x8/x8 mode)
When I look at the new x97 chipset I only see support for pci express 2.0.

Seems like a step backwards. Am I missing something?

 

[clutchc]

This is just a guess, but I suspect it is because the 9-series chipset went to SATA Express for their SSD interface which uses 2 PCIe lanes. PCIe 3.0 was never intended for gfx cards anyway, because gfx cards can't even saturate the bandwidth of PCIe 2.0 @ x16 lanes. PCIe 3.0 was intended for faster SSD access (SSDs that plug into a PCIe slot), as it was found that even SATA III was too slow for the later gen of SSDs.

 

[hardware]

ASUS Z97-PRO LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z97 Extreme6 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Both these boards claim to support PCIe 3.0 but they have compromises.
Still don't understand how they can make that claim if the chipset isn't supporting it.

 

[clutchc]

Both boards have PCIe x16 3.0 slots. Why do you doubt it? PCIe 3.0 doesn't originate in the chipset. It is a function of the processor.

 

[hardware]

Now I get it. I did not realize it was a function of the processor. The graphic in the original post shows PCI express being a function of the chipset not the processor. I would have thought that they would both have to support it for it to be part of the board.