Question Does PCIe 4 matter much over PCIe 3 ? Should I get Ryzen for PCIe 4?

Pumice

Member
Jan 17, 2011
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I am torn between the Ryzen 9 3900X and the Core i9-10900K. Both are within my budget of $500

The Ryzen has PCIe 4 while the Intel only PCIe3. I was leaning towards the Intel but am now wondering if I should go AMD for the PCIe 4 ?

I am building a new computer from the ground up, so if I go Ryzen I will have to get an X570 mobo. Is PCIe 4 only available on the AMD graphics cards?
 
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Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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PCIE4 works on the M.2 slot and the other PCIE devices. It will greatly help your IO if you have devices capable of using it, and you are IO bound.

Regardless of that, the 10900k is far inferior to the 3900k in all respects.
 
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Rigg

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May 6, 2020
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When the next generation of GPU's and SSD's come out it might matter a lot more than it does currently. The next gen game consoles (PS5 in particular) are doing some interesting hardware level things to take advantage of fast SSDs. This could start to fundamentally change how games are designed. If this starts to trickle into PC games the storage speed could become a bottleneck. We might eventually need hi speed NVME storage directly on GPU's to achieve something similar on PC.

 

Pumice

Member
Jan 17, 2011
63
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Which build is superior, A or B ?
a) Ryzen 9 3900X + X570 + Radeon RX 5700XT
b) 10900K + Gigabyte Aorus Ultra ATX z490 + RTX 2060 Super

I believe the Radeon has ray tracking and PCIe 4 ? Is the Radeon as good as or better than the 2060 Super?


The most demanding task is going to be FPS games. I will play a lot of Far Cry.
I will also be running Photoshop and Illustrator though being a newbie I won't be utilizing the programs anywhere near their intended capability .

I will be running Solidworks (CAD program) but don't see myself designing an assembly containing more than 50 individual parts. At my college we have HP Xeon workstations with Nvida Quadro P2000 cards for Solidworkds but these are a few years old now.
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
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thinking for the next few years I think it might be important,
if we are talking gaming, if you look at the PS5 I would expect that to also affect PCs at some point, the need for a seriously fast SSDs, and PCIE 3.0 x4 is not enough.
 

Tabalan

Member
Feb 23, 2020
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Depends on your needs. Professional programmes usually prefer Intel.

For Solidworks, I'd go with Intel. Below you have link for SW 2020 SP1 benchmark. I wouldn't expect CAD/CAM programmes to fully utilize multiple cores (let's say >8) any time soon. Sometimes you'll see them choking 1-2 cores and you have to wait till this task is finished. Exceptions are rendering and some simulations within those programmes.

In Photoshop Intel also seems better (might loose in pure rendering time). From Pugetsystems: "Overall, this makes the Intel Core i9 10900K our new go-to CPU recommendation for Photoshop. "

Not sure how much PCIe 4.0 SSD would help system performance, but for GPU it's obsolete. Only exception they found in their test was DaVinci, which showed some performance gains with PCIe 4.0.

Numerous Z490 motherboards also support PCIe 4.0, but that feature will be available only with Rocket Lake.
 
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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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The 5700XT is a faster card, but it does not have RT. The next gen from both Nvidia and AMD will. For games, at least currently, the intel CPUs should be a bit faster. Overall, it depends on the game and settings though. At high resolution in modern titles you will want to invest more on the GPU, with the CPU making less of a difference.
 

tamz_msc

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2017
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PCIe 4.0 for the GPU in gaming is irrelevant right now and will likely be of little importance when the new GPUs arrive(RTX 3000 and RDNA 2).

And unless you're moving extremely large files all the time or using it as a scratch drive for things like video editing, PCIe 4.0 storage isn't going to be of much relevance either.

Don't be under the impression that just because the PS5 has an awesomely fast storage subsystem, games will suddenly require ultrafast storage to function properly. Games are designed to run on hardware that is the least common denominator and that includes quad-core CPUs with 8GB RAM and nothing but a HDD.
 

CHADBOGA

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2009
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PCIe 4.0 for the GPU in gaming is irrelevant right now and will likely be of little importance when the new GPUs arrive(RTX 3000 and RDNA 2).

And unless you're moving extremely large files all the time or using it as a scratch drive for things like video editing, PCIe 4.0 storage isn't going to be of much relevance either.

Don't be under the impression that just because the PS5 has an awesomely fast storage subsystem, games will suddenly require ultrafast storage to function properly. Games are designed to run on hardware that is the least common denominator and that includes quad-core CPUs with 8GB RAM and nothing but a HDD.
This almost certainly won't be the case on many big budget games, 3 years after the PS5 comes out.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
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Which build is superior, A or B ?
a) Ryzen 9 3900X + X570 + Radeon RX 5700XT
b) 10900K + Gigabyte Aorus Ultra ATX z490 + RTX 2060 Super

I believe the Radeon has ray tracking and PCIe 4 ? Is the Radeon as good as or better than the 2060 Super?


The most demanding task is going to be FPS games. I will play a lot of Far Cry.
I will also be running Photoshop and Illustrator though being a newbie I won't be utilizing the programs anywhere near their intended capability .

I will be running Solidworks (CAD program) but don't see myself designing an assembly containing more than 50 individual parts. At my college we have HP Xeon workstations with Nvida Quadro P2000 cards for Solidworkds but these are a few years old now.

If your most demanding use will be FPS games, especially Far Cry, I think your build doesn't need to be so CPU heavy. Far Cry (and Ubi titles in general) also run much faster on Intel. But you definitely don't need a 10900K for that. A 10700K build will let you put a lot more $ towards GPU, and have an overall superior gaming experience.

Solidworks is terrible at using multiple cores as well, so that will be basically looking for the fastest per core performance, and not be very different between 4 cores or 64 cores.

Photoshop/Illustrator, wouldn't worry too much unless you were going to sit there all day long, but the pro/con is pretty tiny overall.

I'd wait to see what the XT refresh brings, but think you'd honestly be better off with a 3700X or 10700K (or even 3600XT or 10600K!) than you would be in overchasing CPU.

Look at this, and this is with a lowly 1080FE, and non-OC CPUs :
 

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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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I could see newest AAA PC games (ports) requiring AN SSD, but requiring a PCI-E 4.0 NVMe SSD? Thus necessitating a newer platform (Intel still doesn't have a full consumer PCI-E 4.0 solution until...Rocket Lake?), thus currently making the requirement for AMD AM4-only (or TR4/TRX40-only too), and not only that, but Zen2 and newer CPUs, and B550 and X570 and newer mobos. Only the newest cutting-edge (AMD platform) gamers would have that kind of rig.

Remember Ultima Underworld for PC? It was released early on in the days of 386 PCs. In fact, it REQUIRED a 386. Back when almost nobody had them yet. The company basically went under, because of that decision to make their game too much on the "cutting edge" of technology. Sure, it was an impressive game back then, on the 0.05% of PCs out there that could play it, but that didn't translate into very good sales numbers.

I'm pretty sure that any game studio or publisher that has been around the PC space long enough, well remembers that lesson, and will not likely make the same mistake again.
 
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moinmoin

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Jun 1, 2017
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Requiring fast SSD is unlikely, but I can imagine games starting to recommend that, with the solution being requiring at least one of sufficient RAM size (for I/O caching/preloading) and sufficient I/O bandwidth. The PC platform is flexible, so PCIe 4 I/O bandwidth itself won't be a single make or break point there.
 
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mopardude87

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2018
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This MP600 has been a Titanic waste, i got 2.5gbps on a setup of GTA V on steam . Could have gotten a nvme based off a lesser spec but idk i just went for the best for whatever reason as it was not much more honestly. Maybe 4.0 will be useful with 4000 serieis nvidia cards? Would be on ddr5 by then and this stuff will look silly anyways. Hmm.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,224
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Do you really think that by 2024, 95% of the gaming PC market will lack PCIe 4.0 SSD's?
Isn't the most common card in Steam VGA surveys, still something like a GTX 1050 ti? There's your answer, LOL.

Let me ask you a different question. Out of all of the pre-built gaming PCs sold today, can you point out EVEN ONE, that ships with a PCI-E 4.0 NVMe SSD, that is actually running at PCI-E 4.0 speeds?
 

CHADBOGA

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2009
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Isn't the most common card in Steam VGA surveys, still something like a GTX 1050 ti? There's your answer, LOL.
So you think this is a good card for someone to get now?

Do you think people would enjoy playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with this GPU?

Let me ask you a different question. Out of all of the pre-built gaming PCs sold today, can you point out EVEN ONE, that ships with a PCI-E 4.0 NVMe SSD, that is actually running at PCI-E 4.0 speeds?

I doubt I could, but that has absolutely nothing to do with anything I have said in this thread.
 
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