I just picked up an ADATA Premium M.2 Gen 4 SSD for my PS5 at a really good price—$93 CAD (around $68 USD) and it shows 99% health. While it works fine for some games like SF6, the speed is only about 25% of what's advertised. I checked its health with CrystalDiskInfo and ran both long and short tests with HD Tune, and everything seems okay. My motherboard is an AORUS X470 Ultra Gaming, and from what I see on their site, I might be using the second M.2 connector that supports PCIe 2.0, which I suspect could be the reason for the speed issues. However, I can't find clear information about this M.2B socket's generation online. Can anyone clarify this for me?
2 Answers
That makes total sense! Since you’re using a PCIe 4 SSD in a PCIe 2 slot, you’re definitely getting short-changed on speed. Just moving it to a PCIe 3 slot is a good move! You should see a noticeable difference, though it won't be the max speed you should get from a Gen 4 drive.
It looks like your M.2 Gen 4 SSD is indeed slower because it’s plugged into a PCIe 2.0 slot. M.2 Gen 4 should run on PCIe 4.0 x4, so using it in a Gen 2 slot can limit your speed to about 25% of the potential performance. If you switch it to a PCIe 3.0 slot, it'll definitely perform better, but not at full speed since those slots won’t support full Gen 4 speeds.
So, basically, PCIe versions correspond to their generation? I get it now! I thought switching to the third-gen slot would be enough for maximum speed.
Yeah, I thought it was in a PCIe 2 slot, but even at PCIe 3, it won't hit the peak speeds. Glad to know it's at least faster now!