I'm building my first PC and I plan to upgrade my GPU in about five years. I'm trying to decide if I should spend a little extra on a B850 motherboard with PCIe 5.0 support, or if a regular B650 motherboard would be sufficient for now. What do you all think?
5 Answers
PCIe 5.0 is where things are heading. While PCIe 4.0 is good for now, in five years you might regret not getting the latest tech. Plus, newer NVMe drives will also benefit from PCIe 5.0, so it's a win-win if you can spare the cash.
Sure, PCIe 5.0 will help with future-proofing, but let's not forget that PCIe 4.0 is still plenty fast and has a lot of bandwidth to spare. You shouldn't have any bottlenecks for a while.
Most of the top GPUs, like the RTX 5090, only show about a 1% decrease in gaming performance when using PCIe 4.0. Lower-end GPUs see even less of a difference. However, the cost difference between motherboards is usually minimal, so I think paying an extra $20-30 for PCIe 5.0 could be a smart choice for future-proofing your setup.
Exactly! Plus, I've heard that even with PCIe 3.0, the performance dip is around 4%, so it still sounds reasonable to go with PCIe 4.0 if you're not ready to invest heavily.
It's not absolutely necessary; some B650 boards, like those from Gigabyte, do support PCIe 5.0. Just remember that PCIe numbers are just guidelines and actual performance can vary based on the brand.
If your budget allows it, I say go for PCIe 5.0. With tech prices rising, it makes sense to future-proof your build as much as possible.
Totally agree! Getting the 5.0 isn't a bad idea, but I also wouldn't shell out extra if it gets pricey. Right now, most games aren't even tapping out the speeds of PCIe 4.0.