B650 AM5 - PCIe 4.0 ONLY mbo appears?

[LuxZg]

Hey all, I was digging local prices when I found this board for 212€ (incl 25% VAT here in Croatia)

B650M DS3H (rev. 1.0/1.1/1.2) Specification | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

Looking at the specs, I don't see PCIe 5.0 - at all! Board is very basic, except AM5 and DDR5 support all it has is:
- 2 M.2 slots PCIe 4.0
- 1 x16 PCIe 4.0
- 1 x1 PCIe 3.0
- couple 10 Gbit USB ports
- and rest of bare minimums (USB 1.1/2.0, and such)

Wasn't it said that any AM5 will have at least one M.2 at 5.0?

 

[AusWolf]

It's up to the motherboard vendor. My MSi Pro B650M-A WiFi doesn't have a pci-e 5.0 slot, either.

 

[Nike_486DX]

the main pcie x16 goes directly from the cpu, so it should solely depend on what cpu you are going to put in there, unless there is some artificial bios trickery going on (which may be altered in later updates)

 

[AusWolf]

the main pcie x16 goes directly from the cpu, so it should solely depend on what cpu you are going to put in there, unless there is some artificial bios trickery going on (which may be altered in later updates)

The trickery is due to PCB quality. Some motherboards are built to handle the PCI-e 5.0 signal, some are not. That's basically what the B650/B650E and X670/X670E distinction is about.

With the non-E versions, you get a PCI-e 4.0 x16 slot and the m.2 slot specs are up to the motherboard vendor to decide. With the E-versions, all slots have to be 5.0 spec.

 

[Hofnaerrchen]

The trickery is due to PCB quality. Some motherboards are built to handle the PCI-e 5.0 signal, some are not. That's basically what the B650/B650E and X670/X670E distinction is about.

And a reason the prices are much higher for those boards... at least to some degree.

 

[LuxZg]

Hmmmm, all initial presentations said that one M.2 at PCIe 5.0 will be required, even for non-"E" boards. When did they change that?

 

[Mussels]

I thought B550 was 4.0, B550E had the M.2 and GPU at 5.0, and x670 was all 5.0?

 

[LuxZg]

 

[Bomby569]

I thought B550 was 4.0, B550E had the M.2 and GPU at 5.0, and x670 was all 5.0?

B550 chipset doesn't support 4.0, the cpu's are the ones doing it. Only the X570 chipset supports 4.0. As to the new gen i don't know how it works

 

[LuxZg]

I'm talking about B650 AM5. CPU has PCIe 5.0 always, and AM5 boards were so far marketed as always having at least one M.2 5.0 while PCIe x16 was optional, depending on E or non-E. Same as with earlier, this has nothing to do with actual chipset, only with traces and artificial "chipset" names. But this AM5 board has nothing on PCIe 5.0. Sure, MBO OEM could make AM5 with just PCIe 1.0 as well, but that's not how AMD portrayed it.

 

[ir_cow]

I thought B550 was 4.0, B550E had the M.2 and GPU at 5.0, and x670 was all 5.0?

You mean B650, but yes. X670E and B650E support Gen5. None-E versions do not.

It has nothing to do with the CPU, as internally the CPU supports Gen 5. The motherboard is just not up to spec spec to support it. So in practice you could swapped out the board in the future and have Gen 5 support.

 

[AusWolf]

Original question aside, PCI-e gen 5 brings no practical benefit for now, and it's not worth any price premium, imo. If one needs it a few years down the line, a motherboard swap could do the trick, as @ir_cow mentioned.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Original question aside, PCI-e gen 5 brings no practical benefit for now, and it's not worth any price premium, imo. If one needs it a few years down the line, a motherboard swap could do the trick, as @ir_cow mentioned.

Excellent post ^ PCIe 5 is so overrated its becoming absurd. If you want the OS to load about half a second or something similar faster than PCIe 4 can do, then its for you. But as far as games are concerned, they haven't even begun to get into PCIe 4 to date.

 

[AusWolf]

Excellent post ^ PCIe 5 is so overrated its becoming absurd. If you want the OS to load about half a second or something similar faster than PCIe 4 can do, then its for you. But as far as games are concerned, they haven't even begun to get into PCIe 4 to date.

When it comes to storage, even a SATA SSD is fine unless you copy large files on a regular basis, or edit extremely high resolution videos, or have some other niche use case. DirectStorage could have changed this, but it doesn't look like there's been any progress there lately. I have some basic PCE-e gen 3 nvme drives in my main rig and I don't feel restricted in any way.

 

[ir_cow]

Imagine only needing Gen5 4x for a 4090. Wouldn't that be nice . It basically which came first, chicken or the egg. I see a bright further for Gen5, just takes people to stop saying it useless. 4x could go to the GPU and the rest can be used for more USB4 and extra PCIE slots.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Imagine only needing Gen5 4x for a 4090. Wouldn't that be nice . It basically which came first, chicken or the egg. I see a bright further for Gen5, just takes people to stop saying it useless. 4x could go to the GPU and the rest can be used for more USB4 and extra PCIE slots.

PCIe 5 is not useless in the future, how far off that future will be is anybody's guess.
But like you say it's a chicken n' egg situation with any new release high tech hardware. Put the hardware out there & devs will take advantage of it. BUT it will take time. This phenomena doesn't change in this industry.

 

[Dr. Dro]

212 euros for a Gigabyte DS3H is an insult and clearly outlines why the AM5 platform is not selling well

 

[mb194dc]

212 euros for a Gigabyte DS3H is an insult and clearly outlines why the AM5 platform is not selling well

It's too expensive and almost no use case actually needs it over AM4..?

 

[Dr. Dro]

It's too expensive and almost no use case actually needs it over AM4..?

Not to mention Raptor Lake is a better deal all-around. Ugh.

 

[Mussels]

View attachment 268843

Got it, meant to be the NVME slot only

PCI-E 5.0 is not mentioned anywhere in the user manual, so either this board doesnt support it as a unique 'feature' or we're about to see regular B650's lack 5.0

 

[dj-electric]

Any B650 based motherboard "appears" with PCIE Gen 4.0 for graphics. Its how this budget chipset is exactly built.
Can be B650M-DS3H, can be B650 AORUS ELITE.

What you get is PCIE gen 5.0 M.2 storage, still

 

[Mussels]

What you get is PCIE gen 5.0 M.2 storage, still

not with this board

 

[dj-electric]

Yeah this one specifically just isn't wired and switched to do so. I wanna test one, and might ask for it asap. I wanna see what happens in the power department with a Ryzen 9 CPU

 

[Dr. Dro]

PCIe 5.0 support is only mandatory in the X670E chipset implementation. It is optional for the B650, B650E and X670 tiers. B650E is listed as highly suggested, and indeed most B650E (if not all) have it fully implemented, but it is not mandatory either.

AMD Announces B650 Extreme Chipset for Ryzen 7000: PCIe 5.0 For Mainstream (anandtech.com)

 

[thewan]

PCIe 5.0 support is only mandatory in the X670E chipset implementation. It is optional for the B650, B650E and X670 tiers. B650E is listed as highly suggested, and indeed most B650E (if not all) have it fully implemented, but it is not mandatory either.

AMD Announces B650 Extreme Chipset for Ryzen 7000: PCIe 5.0 For Mainstream (anandtech.com)

your own link mentions exactly what OP is asking. Why is there no PCIe 5.0 M.2 NVME slot when there is supposed to be at least one for all of them as mandated by AMD.