I'm building a new setup using the Gigabyte X870 Stealth Ice motherboard and I'm considering adding some 4TB NVMe SSDs. With the current drop in prices for PCIe Gen 4.0 drives like the 990 Pro and SN850x, it's a good time to buy. My aim is to maximize storage, but I'm not sure how many drives I should actually get since the motherboard has 2 Gen 5 and 2 Gen 4 slots available—potentially allowing for a total of 16TB. My main concern is whether using all four SSD slots will affect the GPU's bandwidth. Can I safely install four SSDs without compromising GPU performance? If not, would it be wiser to go for one 8TB and two 4TB drives instead? Also, can anyone clarify which slots might share bandwidth with the GPU?
3 Answers
Installing four SSDs might throttle the PCIe port to 5.0 at 8x, but that's often similar to 4.0 at 16x. In games, the difference in performance is usually minimal, often under 1%. Still, it'd be a good idea to consult your manual for specifics on your board.
Typically, you can fill all the standard M.2 slots below the top PCIe lane without impacting your GPU's performance. Just check if your CPU has enough PCIe lanes available; it's more common for Ryzen CPUs to have additional lanes compared to Intel.
Why not check your motherboard manual? It usually has all the info you need about lane sharing and how to set everything up.
Does that affect loading times or texture issues in games?