MSI Unveils Gen5 PCI-Express Card for Future PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs, 128 GB/s of Transfer Bandwidth

[Tsing]

Image: MSI



MSI has shared a first look at its upcoming Gen5 PCI-Express Card. This product should be of interest to Z690 motherboard owners who are planning to make the switch to PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs when they become available, as the new platform, Alder Lake, reportedly does not offer that level of support in its native M.2 slots. The card runs on a PCIe Gen 5 x8 interface and boasts a bandwidth of up to 128 GB/s.



Image: MSI



MSI has warned that its Gen5 PCI-Express Card will take lanes away from the GPU, however. Graphics cards would have to be run in x8 mode with the card installed. It’s also unclear how much the card will cost or...

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[serpretetsky]

It's not really clear to me what this is? Is this just a passive board with pcie5 specced traces going from the pcie slot to an m.2 connector? Why x8? Are there 2 m.2 connectors? I only see 1.

oh.. 128GB/s... ok its only x4. Also I just realized that the x8 physical connector clearly has no pins on the second half of the connector. I think I answered my own questions in typing this

 

[Elf_Boy]

When is (if it can) NVME going to catch up to Dram, I wonder?

 

[Brian_B]

Let's enjoy the rapid.

Hmm.

I would veto that slogan.

Also, they say more about the fan than they do anything else. No storage included... so this is just a expander card.

 

[Elf_Boy]

How many m.2's does it support? At a guess 2 - which can then be put into raid 0 to get that bandwidth.

I wonder if it is time for Dan or someone to get out the masking tape and do some benches with modern GPU's to see if reducing the lanes does affects performers a little or a lot. Resizable BAR, and much larger amounts of Vram, might change things from the last time these kinds of tests were done.

Losing 2-5% of my FPS to get a super fast storage device might be worth it.

 

[Denpepe]

xcHow many m.2's does it support? At a guess 2 - which can then be put into raid 0 to get that bandwidth.

I wonder if it is time for Dan or someone to get out the masking tape and do some benches with modern GPU's to see if reducing the lanes does affects performers a little or a lot. Resizable BAR, and much larger amounts of Vram, might change things from the last time these kinds of tests were done.

Losing 2-5% of my FPS to get a super fast storage device might be worth it.

Should not be an issue on PCIe 5.0 currently as there are no PCIe 5.0 Graphics cards, x8 PCIe 5.0 lanes is still the same as x16 4.0 lanes which are still overkil for graphics cards.

 

[Brian_B]

How many m.2's does it support? At a guess 2 - which can then be put into raid 0 to get that bandwidth.

Judging from the pic, it looks like only 1.

The board appears to have room for 2, or maybe 4 if you went on the backside as well. But there's only 1 mounting hole and socket in the pic, with an imaginary SSD installed in it.

Also, just noticed while going over the pic: it appears to need a 6-pin PCI power connector. WTF? This thing is going to pull more than the 75W it gets from the bus?