I recently bought an Adata Premium M.2 Gen 4 SSD (2TB) for my PS5, and it was a great deal at around 93 CAD (68 USD). While some games like Street Fighter 6 load much faster, I noticed that the overall speed is only about 25% what's advertised. I checked the SSD's health using CrystalDiskInfo and HD Tune, and both tests showed no errors. My motherboard is an Aorus X470 Ultra Gaming, which has multiple M.2 slots listed on the specs: one supports PCIe 3.0 and the other supports PCIe 2.0. I'm currently using the second slot, which might be why I'm seeing these lower speeds, but I couldn't find clear info on the M2B socket. Could using that slower slot be the reason for my SSD's poor performance?
2 Answers
You got it! It's pretty straightforward; if your drive is PCIe 4.0 and you're using it in a PCIe 2.0 slot, you're definitely going to not see anywhere near the speeds advertised. Placing it in a PCIe 3.0 slot will effectively double the available bandwidth for the SSD, but you'll still be limited compared to optimal conditions. It’s a step in the right direction, though!
Glad to hear you're finding a solution! Just make sure to check your motherboard manual for the correct M.2 slot that supports PCIe 3.0!
It sounds like you’re running into a classic case of mismatch. An M.2 Gen 4 SSD needs a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection to reach its max potential. Since your current setup only supports PCIe 2.0 for the slot you’re using, you’re definitely going to see much slower speeds—around 25% of what you should get! If you want to boost performance, switching to the other slot that supports PCIe 3.0 would definitely help, but it won’t max out the drive.
Exactly! PCIe 2.0 means you're losing a lot of bandwidth with that SSD. Upgrading to a slot that supports PCIe 3.0 should give you a substantial boost!
So, just to clarify, PCIe numbers indicate the generation, right? That explains why my Gen 4 SSD is bottlenecked in a Gen 2 slot. Moving to a Gen 3 slot will help, but it won't be full speed yet.
That makes sense! I felt like I was hitting a wall performance-wise. Moving to the 3rd gen will definitely help, even if it’s not perfect.