[SOLVED] X570 or X470, 2600x or 3600x for NVMe

Globber

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Hey guys, I currently have a 2600x on the Prime X470 Pro. I am wanting to add a 2nd NVMe drive, but my motherboard currently only has the first slot that runs on PCIe. My board has the chipset update that will allow PCIe 4.0, does this mean that if I upgrade to the 3600x that my second m.2 slot will be able to run NVMe speed? Or, would I be able to run both m.2 slots on the Prime X570 Pro with the 2600x at NVMe speed? Or will I have to upgrade my CPU and motherboard in order to get the full NVMe on both m.s slots?
 
Hey guys, I currently have a 2600x on the Prime X470 Pro. I am wanting to add a 2nd NVMe drive, but my motherboard currently only has the first slot that runs on PCIe. My board has the chipset update that will allow PCIe 4.0, does this mean that if I upgrade to the 3600x that my second m.2 slot will be able to run NVMe speed? Or, would I be able to run both m.2 slots on the Prime X570 Pro with the 2600x at NVMe speed? Or will I have to upgrade my CPU and motherboard in order to get the full NVMe on both m.s slots?

The second M.2 socket (M.2_2) runs off the X470 chipset and will always be no better than gen 2 NVME speed. However, when PCIe x1_1 or PCIe x1_3 is occupied M.2_2 socket can only support SATA mode. This is the case regardless of CPU type installed.

Also, do not get too excited about being able to run gen 4 for NVME's in M.2_1, the M.2 socket run off the CPU, with Ry3k CPU's. I imagine that will change with future BIOS updates when AMD locks it out in AGESA.

On X570 boards all M.2 sockets can be Gen 4 NVME, even the ones running off the chipset.
 
Where did you hear that your X470 support PCIe 4.0? They said that is would initially, but then changed it later that only X570 will support PCIe 4.0
Asus released BIOS for X470 boards with an earlier ComboPI AGESA that has gen 4 enabled for the CPU. They also provided a toggle to enable in BIOS screens.

You can bet AMD will disable it in later AGESA's, if they haven't already in 1.0.0.3ab

 
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Globber

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Where did you hear that your X470 support PCIe 4.0? They said that is would initially, but then changed it later that only X570 will support PCIe 4.0

Multiple articles have been released that the next BIOS update on the Prime X470 Pro among other ASUS models will have PCIe 4.0 x8 support. So not full PCIe 4.0, but if it cleared up enough bandwidth that would allow multiple NVMe drives, possibly, at full speed.
 

Globber

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The second M.2 socket (M.2_2) runs off the X470 chipset and will always be no better than gen 2 NVME speed. However, when PCIe x1_1 or PCIe x1_3 is occupied M.2_2 socket can only support SATA mode. This is the case regardless of CPU type installed.

Also, do not get too excited about being able to run gen 4 for NVME's in M.2_1, the M.2 socket run off the CPU, with Ry3k CPU's. I imagine that will change with future BIOS updates when AMD locks it out in AGESA.

On X570 boards all M.2 sockets can be Gen 4 NVME, even the ones running off the chipset.

SO then if I upgrade my motherboard to an X570 model, I should still be able to run both m.2 slots on NVMe if I keep my 2600x until I upgrade later to a Ry3k?
 
SO then if I upgrade my motherboard to an X570 model, I should still be able to run both m.2 slots on NVMe if I keep my 2600x until I upgrade later to a Ry3k?
What you're basically asking is will an X570 chipset provide Gen 4 PCIe to it's peripherals even with a 1000 or 2000 series Ryzen.

Well...even if it did it couldn't pass data for processing any faster than the CPU limited Gen 3 link between the chipset and CPU... so what if it did?

But even so, that's a good question.
 

Globber

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What you're basically asking is will an X570 chipset provide Gen 4 PCIe to it's peripherals even with a 1000 or 2000 series Ryzen.

Well...even if it did it couldn't pass data for processing any faster than the CPU limited Gen 3 link between the chipset and CPU... so what if it did?

But even so, that's a good question.

Ultimately, I am less concerned with the PCIe 4.0 support as I am being able to run NVMe on both m.s slots. Even if I am only getting 3.0 speed to both m.2 slots I would be fine until I upgrade to a better CPU later. And I will be upgrading both at some point, but I am still happy with my 2600x performance other than not having enough PCIe lanes to all peripherals.
 
Ultimately, I am less concerned with the PCIe 4.0 support as I am being able to run NVMe on both m.s slots. Even if I am only getting 3.0 speed to both m.2 slots I would be fine until I upgrade to a better CPU later. And I will be upgrading both at some point, but I am still happy with my 2600x performance other than not having enough PCIe lanes to all peripherals.
I'm pretty sure X570 boards will also have constraints on the NVME slots especially when you also start filling PCIe slots. You will have to look at individual models to determine just how that shakes down.

Unfortunately, it's X299 chipset for Threadripper that offer the PCIe lanes. And Zen2 TR chips aren't even announced yet... along with their chipset (X399??) support so we don't know what's coming.
 

Globber

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I'm pretty sure X570 boards will also have constraints on the NVME slots especially when you also start filling PCIe slots. You will have to look at individual models to determine just how that shakes down.

Unfortunately, it's X299 chipset for Threadripper that offer the PCIe lanes. And Zen2 TR chips aren't even announced yet... along with their chipset (X399??) support so we don't know what's coming.

None-the-less, that still isn't too bad. Especially if 2 PCIe 4.0 lanes = 4 PCIe 3.0 lanes. I can't even justify x399 and threadripper prices yet, a 3950x and x570 motherboard will suit my needs perfectly, for now. I just can't afford both quite yet.
 

TJ Hooker

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TJ Hooker

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Ultimately, I am less concerned with the PCIe 4.0 support as I am being able to run NVMe on both m.s slots. Even if I am only getting 3.0 speed to both m.2 slots I would be fine until I upgrade to a better CPU later. And I will be upgrading both at some point, but I am still happy with my 2600x performance other than not having enough PCIe lanes to all peripherals.
You can run NVMe drives in both M.2 slots with your current motherboard/CPU...

Or do you mean running both at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds? If so, running a 2600X in an X570 ought to allow this.
 
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Globber

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You can run NVMe drives in both M.2 slots with your current motherboard/CPU...

Or do you mean running both at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds? If so, running a 2600X in an X570 ought to allow this.

In my x470 board, the 2nd m.2 slot drops to SATA speed, so I max out around 700 MBps. Yes i was referring to full PCIe speed. I guess I am going to upgrade my motherboard first and see how it works out and then upgrade CPU later when the price on the 3900x or 3950x isn't so crazy. Thank you.
 

TJ Hooker

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In my x470 board, the 2nd m.2 slot drops to SATA speed, so I max out around 700 MBps. Yes i was referring to full PCIe speed. I guess I am going to upgrade my motherboard first and see how it works out and then upgrade CPU later when the price on the 3900x or 3950x isn't so crazy. Thank you.
The 2nd M.2 slot should be capable of ~2 GB/s. Are you sure it's the interface that's limiting you? Might be worthwhile swapping the SSD from the secondary to primary slots and running the same benchmark and seeing how speeds compare.
 

Globber

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The 2nd M.2 slot should be capable of ~2 GB/s. Are you sure it's the interface that's limiting you? Might be worthwhile swapping the SSD from the secondary to primary slots and running the same benchmark and seeing how speeds compare.

Something with my SATA/USB controller is limiting me. Even my USB 3.0 connection is being limited to about 260Mbps, I was using a USB WiFi adapter and could not get anything faster than that. Switched to a PCIe WiFi card and am getting full 500Mbps speeds. Even the 2 GB/s is still slower than the rated 3500 on my NVMe drive, that was the main thing that excites me about the X570 is being able to have multiple NVMe drives at full speed. Or 4 of them in RAID 1+0 lol
 

TJ Hooker

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PCIe 2.0 would limit it in theory, but something to keep in mind is that you're never going to see 3.5 GB/s (or even anything significantly greater than 2GB/s) out of a typical NVMe SSD in most applications, regardless of the interface.

E.g. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-970-evo-plus-ssd,5608-3.html
Ignore the high queue depth results, as that's a scenario that is highly unlikely to ever occur during normal consumer use.
 
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