what bandwidth can you get on PCIe Gen 5 NVMe running Windows 7?

[Happy Hopping]

https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t700/ct1000t700ssd5

so for motherboard running windows 7, they support PCIe 3.0, these NVMe drive claims it can do 12.4 GB/s read and 11.8 GB/s write. What speed can you get if these were install on PCIe 3.0 motherboard?

because I read some of you using PCIe 4 video card on PCIe 3 motherboard, and they work just fine and get the most out of it, meaning that the PCIe 4 video card still haven't max. out the max. bandwidth of PCIe 3. So I am hoping the same thing w/ NVMe drive. In other words, if we stretch the upper limit of PCIe 3.0 motherboard, what speed do you get on these NVMe drive?

 

[Abula]

PCIe 3.0 on a 4x port max is 4bg/s (on a perfect world), so that should be the most you able to achieve with your motherboard, but there are 2x ports that will cripple the drive to half of that.

Personally i would just get a 970Evo, likely cheaper than the PCIe 5.0 and will give you the same feeling than any nvme, specially on that motherboard. By the time you are on PCIe 5.0 moving the drive, there will be better drives.

Most SSDs are the same for the average user, unless you have very specific workloads then you will see a difference, but for the average user that uses their pc to browse the web, play games, watch movies, send email, work on excel/word, then any SSD will be the same. Right now we have reached PCIe 5.0, but none of the consumer ssd can sustain the bandwidth that PCIe gives, most NVMEs are design with Caches that burst into those limits for brief periods of time until they are used, and then you go down to the real sequential speed that the ssd can sustain, that depending on the brand and design... usually lands between 700-2000mb/s.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

so for motherboard running windows 7, they support PCIe 3.0, these NVMe drive claims it can do 12.4 GB/s read and 11.8 GB/s write. What speed can you get if these were install on PCIe 3.0 motherboard?

PCIe is designed to that when a host/device is running at one spec/generation (e.g., PCIe 3), and the other at a different level (e.g. PCIe 4), the higher one will fall back to the lower for compatibility. So in the case of a PCIe 4/5 SSD connected to a PCIe 3 mainboard, the SSD will fall back and perform just like a PCIe 3 unit.

The same is true for lane count. If one side supports x4 lanes and the other x2, then the connection will be at x2.

because I read some of you using PCIe 4 video card on PCIe 3 motherboard, and they work just fine and get the most out of it, meaning that the PCIe 4 video card still haven't max. out the max. bandwidth of PCIe 3. So I am hoping the same thing w/ NVMe drive. In other words, if we stretch the upper limit of PCIe 3.0 motherboard, what speed do you get on these NVMe drive?

You're reading that incorrectly. The thing is that very few GPUs, especially once you get below the top-end/halo cards like a 4080/4090, can actually use the entirety of the bandwidth afforded to them. In most applications/games the GPU may only be using about half, so going from a PCIe 4 x16 to a PCIe3 x16 shows no real-world downside.

SSDs, on the other hand, are pretty typically good at saturating all of the bandwidth given to them. A PCIe 4 x4 unit will take up the full bandwidth of a PCIe 4 slot. If instead you placed the drive in a PCIe 3 slot, the bandwidth would be cut in half and perform the same as a PCIe 3 SSD would.

* * *

So, as for your situation:

If the new SSD you buy is going to live and die in this system, there's absolutely no reason to get anything more than a PCIe 3 unit. Anything more would be a waste of money and not perform any better. The Samsung 970 Evo+ or SK Hynix P31 are solid choices.

If you expect that you may replace the system in the future and plan to move the new SSD over, then considering a PCIe 4 SSD might be warranted despite the lack of benefit to your current system. If you go this route, the SK Hynix P41 or WD SN850X are good. Though honestly a PCIe 3 unit in the hypothetical new system would also be just fine in just about any real-world usage.

The first PCIe 5 SSDs are very expensive, run stupid-hot, and most, FWIW, can't even fully utilize a PCIe 5 x4 slot. Avoid for now.

 

[bluestang]

Do these MB's you're looking at even support Windows 7?

 

[Happy Hopping]

very insightful, people. Thank you