Does PCIe Generation Matter for Upgrading GPUs?

It's true that PCIe generation is mostly important to those who specifically research and understand their performance needs. The average user probably won't notice if they're using the wrong generation unless they’re hitting extreme performance limits.

In most cases, the CPU will be the bigger bottleneck on a motherboard with PCIe 3, rather than the PCIe generation itself. So, upgrading to the 9070 XT should still give you good performance without worrying too much about PCIe bottlenecks.

At a high level, PCIe speeds are slower than the data transfer between the GPU and its VRAM. Running out of VRAM can lead to serious performance drops, especially if your GPU only has 4 or 8 PCIe lanes. But during regular gameplay on a card with enough VRAM, the difference between PCIe 3 and 5 is usually minimal.

Honestly, for gaming, the performance impact of moving from Gen 3 to Gen 4 or 5 is usually really small, like around 1 to 3%. Most gamers wouldn't notice much difference unless they're really focused on monitoring frame rates.

PCIe gen becomes important when you have a GPU that runs out of VRAM. If the GPU can't store everything on its VRAM, it starts using system RAM, which can slow things down. If you're only gaming at moderate settings and your GPU has enough VRAM, you likely won't run into issues.