Ryzen 3000: PCIe 4.0 works on X470 and B450 motherboards

Ryzen 3000 brings PCIe 4.0 to end-customer computers for the first time. Gigabyte updates now indicate that this also works with X470 and B450 motherboards.

PCIe 4.0 delivers double speed

Virtually all additional components and connections in the computer are connected to the processor or chipset via the PCI Express interface. These include SATA ports as well as PCIe slots for the graphics card or M.2 interfaces for SSDs. PCIe in the current third generation is therefore omnipresent in every computer. At present, the third generation is probably the most widespread. However, with PCIe 4.0 there is already a newer standard that was supported by IBM’s Power9 processors for the first time. PCIe 4.0 provides twice the speed compared to PCIe 3.0.

The next manufacturer to rely on the fast PCIe standard is AMD. Both the Vega 20 graphics cards for the data center called Radeon Instinct MI60 and MI50 come with the interface, as do the new Zen 2-based processors. In addition to the Epyc 2 family, this also includes Ryzen 3000. At CES 2019, the company confirmed in a presentation that Ryzen 3000 also comes with support for the new standard. So far it was assumed that this is only possible with a new motherboard and the new X570 chipset. Updates from Gigabyte now show that the chipsets X470 and B450 also support PCIe 4.0.

X470 and B450 support PCIe 4.0 with Ryzen 3000 processor

Although Ryzen 3000 relies on a completely new internal structure with chiplets and doubles the number of cores, the AM4 socket has remained the same. Thus, the older motherboards of the first and second generation are also compatible. However, updates now indicate that another feature is still possible despite older motherboards. As Tom’s Hardware reports, there is an interesting innovation in the latest BIOS updates from Gigabyte. A Reddit user has found out that his Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi can also be set to PCIe 4.0 in a menu since the update to version F40. Tom’s hardware finally verified this with the same motherboard and several other Gigabyte motherboards. This works not only with high-end X470 motherboards, but also with motherboards that rely on B450.

The basic possibility of using PCIe 4.0 with a Ryzen 3000 processor has long been known and confirmed by AMD. However, Gigabyte is the first manufacturer to implement such a measure with its own motherboards. Generally it depends on the motherboard manufacturer whether the new PCIe standard can be used. For this to work, a Ryzen 3000 processor is required. In addition, only the ports that are directly connected to the processor work with the new PCIe standard. This is usually the top x16 port that often contains the graphics card. General support for PCIe 4.0 on all ports is therefore probably only available with a 500 series motherboard. Also suitable graphics cards with the new standard are still missing. Nevertheless, it is pleasing that even such new features can still be integrated into the compatibility.