I recently bought an ADATA Premium M.2 Gen 4 SSD intended for my PS5, which I got for a steal at about $93 CAD (or $68 USD) and it shows 99% health. Some games load way quicker, like Street Fighter 6, but I noticed the speed is only about 25% of what the manufacturer advertised. My motherboard is the Aorus X470 Ultra Gaming, and I'm trying to figure out why the speeds aren't what I expected. The manufacturer's site says it supports both PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0, but I believe I'm using the PCIe 2.0 M2B socket. I can't seem to find any clear info on what gen that slot is and if it's affecting my SSD's performance. Any insights?
2 Answers
Totally makes sense! Since you're running a Gen 4 SSD in a Gen 2 slot, you're definitely bottlenecked. If you moved it to a Gen 3 slot, you're probably seeing a decent speed increase, but there’s still a bit of restriction. At least it’s faster now, right?
It sounds like you're using a PCIe 2.0 slot for your M.2 Gen 4 SSD. Just to clarify, M.2 Gen 4 SSDs are PCIe 4.0 x4, and your specs say the M2B socket only supports up to PCIe 2.0 x4. That means you’re getting about 25% of the intended speed, which matches what you’re experiencing. Moving it to a PCIe 3.0 slot should definitely boost your speeds, but it won't reach full Gen 4 performance yet. Sorry about the confusion!
Yes, PCIe versions indicate the generation! You've got it right. Moved to the Gen 3 slot, and you'll see a significant improvement, but just know it's still capped compared to what a Gen 4 slot would offer.
Yeah, it’s definitely better than before, but I wish I could unlock its full potential!