M.2 Gen4 question on Z490 boards

dunn2010 · 3 Sep 2020 at 15:03

Hi All,

i was looking at the Gigabyte Z490-UD board and i can't see if it does or does not support M.2 GEN 4 , gigabytes website suggests not?

that being said the ASRock Extreme which is a little bit more in price, the site says it does but the smaller print only references M.2 PCI3 4.0

I'm finding the wording around all the M.2 tech info a little confusing, can someone clear up if the board at the top does support and will allow me to use a GEN4 M.2 for the crazy speeds or if i need to go more expensive and if i do, which boards sub £200 would support it that is recommended?

thanks

heatonpkmassive · 3 Sep 2020 at 15:13

What do you use the PC for? You may not need the speed of PCI Gen 4.

dunn2010 · 3 Sep 2020 at 15:22

Just gaming to be honest and i know the speed difference between a good gen3 and gen4 is probably minimal but its one of those things of, if itll cost me a little bit extra, why not get it

mickyflinn · 3 Sep 2020 at 15:32

dunn2010 said:
Just gaming to be honest and i know the speed difference between a good gen3 and gen4 is probably minimal but its one of those things of, if itll cost me a little bit extra, why not get it

In day to day usage and loading games you won't notice any difference.

Don't get a new motherboard and waste your money.

What size m2 do you need ?

Journey · 3 Sep 2020 at 15:43

Z490 is Intel, Intel have no CPU's that support PCI-E Gen 4.0, so it would be an utter waste of time either way.

lee32uk · 3 Sep 2020 at 15:55

You would have to buy an 11th Gen Intel cpu when they release to get pcie 4.0.

dunn2010 · 3 Sep 2020 at 16:06

Ahh fair, im looking to upgrade most of my rig at the moment. If the boards themselves dont support it not much point!

thanks for clearing it up gents, ill just stick to a good gen3

EsaT · 3 Sep 2020 at 17:49

lee32uk said:
You would have to buy an 11th Gen Intel cpu when they release to get pcie 4.0.

Assuming that Intel manages to get PCIe v4 working...
I wouldn't hold my breath with the track record of Intel in last handfull of years.

heatonpkmassive · 3 Sep 2020 at 20:52

dunn2010 said:
Ahh fair, im looking to upgrade most of my rig at the moment. If the boards themselves dont support it not much point!

thanks for clearing it up gents, ill just stick to a good gen3

If you're just gaming, even compared to a SATA SSD you wouldn't notice much difference. I'd maybe get a Gen 3 NVME and save a few quid for another part of the build.