M.2 NVME SSD connection speed question

[Roy.Z]

Hi Friends,

 

I'm looking in a motherboard which I'll probably get but I just want to be sure about the NVME SSD connection. 

 

The specs of this Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO says: "Dual Ultra-Fast NVMe PCIe Gen3 M.2 (x4, x2) with Dual Thermal Guards"

The drive I'm looking at is XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (peak read/write speeds of 3500/3000MB/s - NVME 1.3)

I only intend to use one which is the x4 one, but a chart in the manual says that when I use that x4 socket I'm loosing 2 SATA connections (image attached), I have no problem with that, but my question is:

 

If this cuts off 2 SATA connections, does that mean that it's also running in SATA speeds? or that it is still fast as PCIE x4 and should allow the fast speeds of the drive?

And if it does use the PCIe x4, doesn't it take away from the lanes used by the other PCIe slots? nothing is mentioned about it in the specs or the manual. 

My guess is that the M.2 slot is getting its lanes from the chipset? hope I'm not talking nonsense.. lanes are a very new subject for me

 

I just want to make sure I'll get the high speeds that the NVME drive offers and that I wont hurt the speed of the other PCIe slots. 

 

I would appreciate any advice. Thanks a lot!

 

Roy.

 

 

 

[Roy.Z]

45 minutes ago, Cvet76 said:

No. It still runs at NvME speeds.

Yes. It takes a few PCIe lanes.

Thanks for your reply, 

 

So I'm intending to use a graphics card which has to work in the PCIe X16 slot and a capture card that has to work in the PCIe X4 slot.

The motherboard has one PCIe x16 (x16) slot, one x16 (x4) slot, one x16 (x1) slot and one x1 (x1) slot.

They mention that "The PCIEX4 slot operates at up to x2 mode when the PCIEX1_1/PCIEX1_2 slot is populated. The PCIEX4 slot operates at up to x4 mode when both of the PCIEX1_1 and PCIEX1_2 slots are empty."

 

Now I don't need to use any other slots but the first two (x16 and x4) but would like to know I won't hurt their speed by connecting an NVME drive.. will I?

 

Thank you so much for helping. 

 

 

[Roy.Z]

16 hours ago, Cvet76 said:

My guess is, you probably won't. But I don't know for certain. I've never had a capture card so I can't really say what's what. But seeing this is a bandwidth question, I'd look into the resolution of whatever you're capturing and the bandwidth needed, then the PCIE/X2 and PCIE/X4 bandwidth to see what you could get in these two scenarios and how this would affect the performance you're looking for. Sorry I can't give a more definitive answer.

Thanks a lot, the graphics card runs at x16 and the capture card runs at x4 other then that there are two x1 slots that if I use I make the x4 run at a lower speed of x2, that's by what the motherboard specs says. questions is, if the NVME share the lanes in some way with the PCIe slots, I have a feeling that not since one NVME slot is rated x4 and the second one is rated x2. and it doesn't mention anywhere that it lowers the speed of the x16 slots.. Thanks again.