Question about running dual NVMe drives

[gimmickmusik1]

So, long story short I am looking to install a second NVMe drive that is dedicated to my games library. My question is whether my current setup will affect performance or not. 

I am currently running Windows off of a Samsung 970 Evo+ (PCIe gen 3) drive. So would this affect the in game performance of a gen 4 drive like a Samsung 980 Pro?

[ToboRobot]

If you are asking if installing a second NVME in your motherboard and using it just for games, and the current one for the OS and apps, will have an impact on gaming performance?  Yes, likely a small positive one.  It shouldn't make things worse.

[RONOTHAN##]

So first, you're not gonna hit anywhere near the limits of a gen 4 drive. Not even close. I get the argument "Direct Storage is coming" but we're still a year or two away at the earliest, and probably 3 or 4 before you might actually notice a difference. You're better off getting a higher capacity Gen 3 drive instead, and when Direct storage eventually releases, decide then if you need to get a gen 4 drive. 

 

Second, whether you'll be able to achieve the full potential of these drives depends on your motherboard, CPU, and what slots your gonna use. Outside of Threadripper, I'm not aware of a platform with enough PCIe lanes to have a GPU running 16x and both M.2 slots running off dedicated lanes. One of the drives will end up sharing bandwidth with the chipset, but as eluded to above, you're not gonna notice it and it genuinely doesn't matter. 

[gimmickmusik1]

16 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

If you are asking if installing a second NVME in your motherboard and using it just for games, and the current one for the OS and apps, will have an impact on gaming performance?  Yes, likely a small positive one.  It shouldn't make things worse.

I'm just trying to find out if it matters if my games are on a faster drive than my OS drive.

[Founders]

46 minutes ago, gimmickmusik1 said:

I'm just trying to find out if it matters if my games are on a faster drive than my OS drive.

No, but you'll need to run the PCI Gen 4 drive in the M.2 slot closest to your CPU to take full advantage of the speed. The second M.2 is Gen 3 running off of your boards chipset. Your money would be better spent on a larger Gen 3 drive. There's virtually no discernible difference between the two for gaming, but it's your money so you do what you like.  

[RONOTHAN##]

15 minutes ago, Founders said:

The second M.2 is Gen 3 running off of your boards chipset.

I mean, it depends on the board (X570 is full Gen 4, most Z690 boards would also have that slot running Gen 4 as well, though everything but threadripper will have it share with the CPU), but for the most part yeah. Going through previous posts, it looks like OP is using an X570-E Strix, so while the 2nd slot will be sharing bandwidth with the chipset, it's still capable of Gen 4 speeds. 

 

If they do end up buying the 980 Pro (which I don't recommend, but as you said, it is their money), I'd move it to the top slot and put the 970 Evo to the 2nd slot, that way they both effectively get access to full bandwidth. 

[mariushm]

The first m.2 connector usually receives pci-e lanes directly from the CPU ... there's 4 lanes dedicated to it, coming from CPU.

 

The second m.2 connector usually recieves pci-e lanes from the chipset. Depending on chipset, when you install the second m.2 ssd, some SATA ports or some pci-e x1 slots may be disabled.

 

No, you wouldn't have any performance loss, because the first m.2 has its own dedicated pci-e lanes from the cpu, and the video card has its own dedicated pci-e lanes from the cpu.