I recently bought an ADATA premium M.2 Gen 4 SSD for my PS5, and while it was a steal at 93 CAD (or 68 USD) and the health is showing 99%, I'm only getting about 25% of the advertised speed. Some games like SF6 load noticeably faster, but I've checked for errors using CrystalDiskInfo and HD Tune and everything seems fine. I'm using an Aorus X470 Ultra Gaming motherboard, which supports both PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 2.0. I suspect I'm using the PCIe 2.0 slot, but I can't find much info online about the M2B socket. Can anyone explain if my guess is right and what impact the slot versions have on speed?
2 Answers
You're spot on! Your M.2 Gen 4 SSD should be running at PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds, but it sounds like you're using the PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, which severely limits your speed to about 25% of what you should be getting. If you move it to a PCIe 3.0 slot, you’ll definitely see a boost, but it won’t be maxing out the SSD's potential. Definitely check that out!
That all makes sense! Since you're running a Gen 4 SSD in a Gen 2 slot, it’s no wonder your speeds are suffering. Switching to a PCIe 3 slot will double your bandwidth, helping you get much better performance, even if it’s not the full Gen 4 speed.
Yeah, I found that out the hard way! Switched to the PCIe 3 slot and the speed is way better than before, but it's still not at full speed. Guess I'll need a motherboard upgrade eventually!
Exactly, just moving it to a PCIe 3 slot should help you out a lot. You'll get much better speed than you are now!