Hey folks! My PC recently broke down and I found out that I'll need to replace my motherboard, CPU, and NVMe SSD. I'm hoping to save some cash by reusing my other components for now. Here's my current setup: an RTX 2060, a 600W 80 Plus Bronze PSU, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a mix of SATA SSD and HDD.
I plan to get a new CPU, motherboard, and an NVMe M.2 SSD to get my PC running again, and then, in about a year, I want to upgrade my GPU to something like the RTX 5060. After checking things out, I'm leaning towards an i5-14400F CPU with either the ASUS PRIME H610M-A or the MSI PRO B760M-E motherboard, both of which support PCIe 4.0. But I've heard the upcoming RTX 5000 series will use PCIe 5.0.
So, my questions are:
- Will using a PCIe 5.0 GPU on a PCIe 4.0 board lead to performance loss or compatibility issues?
- Are the components I'm considering a good choice for this upgrade plan?
3 Answers
All RTX 50 series GPUs work great in a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot—there are no compatibility or performance issues. While PCIe 5.0 does offer some flexibility for other components, like additional fast NVMe drives, it's really not going to impact gaming much right now.
There's a minor difference between PCIe 4.0 and 5.0, pretty much within the margin of error during tests, especially for a 5090 card. Unless you plan to upgrade to a top-end GPU right away, you should be fine with your current plans.
You shouldn't run into any problems soon. We aren't really seeing a meaningful performance increase moving from PCIe 3.0 to 4.0 in gaming. The only time you might hit a wall is when you're out of VRAM, but that's usually the least of your concerns. Even with new tech like direct storage coming up, PCIe 4.0 should keep you covered for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, I’m trying to be practical about it! Trying to stretch my budget a bit.