I'm considering the X870M Aorus Elite WIFI7 motherboard for my build, but I want to clarify something before I buy. Can I use both a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for my GPU and a PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot for my SSD at the same time without affecting the performance of either? I read somewhere that this might not be the case with X870 motherboards compared to B850 ones. Has anyone figured this out for sure?
3 Answers
There are indeed higher-end boards that offer multiple Gen5 M.2 slots by sacrificing lanes from the GPU slot, but the X870M Aorus Elite isn't one of them. According to its specs, you have a PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot and a separate PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot. There’s no indication of lane sharing affecting your x16 GPU slot there.
Using one M.2 slot shouldn't be a problem at all. The AM5 CPUs give you a total of 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes—4 lanes are for the M.2, 16 for the PCIe slot, and the remaining 4 go to peripherals like USB4. Just keep in mind that if you had a second PCIe 5.0 M.2, it would have to share lanes with either the GPU or the USB4 controller, but for just one of each, you're all set!
Thanks for confirming that! I didn’t see any warnings in the specs either, which made me wonder. It seems like as long as you’re mindful of populating the right slots, you shouldn’t run into any bandwidth sharing issues with just one Gen 5 SSD and PCIe 5.0 GPU. Great to know!

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