Can I use a PCIe Gen 4 SSD on a motherboard only supports Gen 2?

[A Silver]

I am going to upgrade to Intel 12th gen when it comes out but I also want to upgrade my storage. I am looking at the MP600 SSD's from Corsair but my current motherboard (z97) Only supports PCIe Gen 2 x2 for the m.2 slot. Would I still be able to use the newer drive on my old board in the meantime before I upgrade? Would it fit in the older slot?

[Master Disaster]

I want to say yes since there's no technical reason why it shouldn't work, you can use a PCIe 4 GPU in a PCIe 2 slot with no issues but I actually don't know that is definitely the case.

 

Just try it and see, as long as it physically fits at worst it just wont detect.

[A Silver]

47 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I want to say yes since there's no technical reason why it shouldn't work, you can use a PCIe 4 GPU in a PCIe 2 slot with no issues but I actually don't know that is definitely the case.

 

Just try it and see, as long as it physically fits at worst it just wont detect.

Thanks for the reply, I guess absolute worst case if it does not fit, I just won't use it until I get the new board. Thanks!

[mariushm]

It SHOULD work, but it's up to the controller on the SSD.

 

PCI-e 1.0 and 2.0 used 8b/10b encoding when transmitting data (for every 8 bits of data, 2 bits are used for error detection, correction and recovery), while PCI-e 3.0 switched to 128b/130b encoding (2 bits of error checking for every 128 bits) 

 

So in theory, it could be that the controller used on the SSD may only be able to "understand" and "speak" 128b/130b encoding.but I wouldn't be able to tell you if there are such problematic controllers.  It could also be that the nvme / pci-e organization would force everyone to have backwards compatibility. and therefore all nvme SSDs would work in pci-e 2.0 slots.

 

Keep in mind that on pci-e 2.0, each lane has 500 MB/s , so you'll have a maximum of 2 GB/s with  4 pci-e lanes.

It may make more sense to stick to regular 2.5" SATA SSDs, as such old pc would not really benefit much from more than 550 MB/s read and write speeds.

 

[A Silver]

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

It SHOULD work, but it's up to the controller on the SSD.

 

PCI-e 1.0 and 2.0 used 8b/10b encoding when transmitting data (for every 8 bits of data, 2 bits are used for error detection, correction and recovery), while PCI-e 3.0 switched to 128b/130b encoding (2 bits of error checking for every 128 bits) 

 

So in theory, it could be that the controller used on the SSD may only be able to "understand" and "speak" 128b/130b encoding.but I wouldn't be able to tell you if there are such problematic controllers.  It could also be that the nvme / pci-e organization would force everyone to have backwards compatibility. and therefore all nvme SSDs would work in pci-e 2.0 slots.

 

Keep in mind that on pci-e 2.0, each lane has 500 MB/s , so you'll have a maximum of 2 GB/s with  4 pci-e lanes.

It may make more sense to stick to regular 2.5" SATA SSDs, as such old pc would not really benefit much from more than 550 MB/s read and write speeds.

 

Thanks for the insight, it would only be at pcie 2 speeds for a month or so as it'll be going on a 12th gen motherboard in November so I'll live with the low speeds for that time. I'm going to go for it and absolute worse case I'll just keep it in its box for a month or so 

[kokosnh]

9 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I want to say yes since there's no technical reason why it shouldn't work, you can use a PCIe 4 GPU in a PCIe 2 slot with no issues but I actually don't know that is definitely the case.

 

Just try it and see, as long as it physically fits at worst it just wont detect.

I had to update bios in Gigabyte Z490 gaming X, for it to run a PCI-e 2.0 GPU (GTX 570), to get video signal from it. 
I thought that it doesn't make sense, because the first PCIe x16 slot is directly connected to the CPU, but it did. And the uefi update solved it. Well, it didn't give any video signal, from iGPU ports, when GPU was in PCI-e, so it's not a bug with the igpu vs GPU display priority.


As for the SSD, from specification stan, it should work, PCI-e 4.0 is by specification, backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0. And that's specification include SSD, CPU and MOBO.

But to be honest tell us what mobo it is, because it i'd have 2 PCIe x16 from CPU (both work in x8/x8 ) than you could use an PCI-e to M.2 adapter for it to go full PCI-e 3.0 x4 speed  3950 MB/s. But if it's only for a while, then it's not necessary.