Rog maximus z790 hero and gen 5 m.2...........PLEASE HELP

[bodhizapha]

Hey guys,

I have a z790 hero and I just bought a new 1TB WD SN 8100 gen 5 m.2. I have installed the hyper m.2 card in PCIEX16_2 (under my GPU) and put the m.2 into the hyper card in slot 1 ( the slot on the left) and I can't get it to run in gen 5 mode. I have enabled it in the BIOS under PCIEX16_2 to Gen 5 and tried to turn on bifurcation 8x8. Nothing works. Looking at some other posts, I have it set up right, and with the bios settings to auto, it should just work. I am very confused. I tried turning on VDM or VMD, not sure, and that just pooched my master boot record. I have reinstalled like 8 times, and I am starting to wonder if the motherboard is bad, or the drive, or the hyper card. I reached out to ASUS tech support, and no help was given from them. This mother board is only a few months old. I have an i9-14900kf, 32GB of DDR5 at 7200M/T's, and an MSI 4070. I am wondering if I should just return the drive? I am not getting help from anyone here. This is my 2nd post.

[vortex1]

Hi @bodhizapha, I hear your concerns.

First of all I apologize for having to refer to AI, but I haven't got your Hyper card setup. Nonetheless this info could help you - which is most important.

Here's what I learned that may help you:

Installation and BIOS Settings:

The Hyper M.2 card is installed in PCIEX16_2, which is under the GPU. We need to check if this slot supports the required bandwidth for Gen 5 M.2 operation. According to the ASUS Z790 Hero manual, PCIEX16_2 runs at x8 when the primary PCIEX16 slot is occupied by a GPU, which might affect the bandwidth available for the M.2 card.

To ensure Gen 5 mode is enabled, we need to check the BIOS settings:

• Enter the BIOS settings during boot.
• Look for settings related to PCIe configuration and ensure that PCIEX16_2 is set to run at x8 or higher if possible.
• Check if there's an option to enable or force PCIe 5.0 mode for the M.2 drive.

Drive Installation and Detection:

Ensure that the WD SN8100 Gen 5 M.2 is properly seated in Slot 1 of the Hyper M.2 card. The motherboard and BIOS should detect the drive.

Verifying Gen 5 Mode Operation:

To verify if the WD SN8100 is running in Gen 5 mode:

• Use tools like CrystalDiskInfo to check the drive's interface speed.
• Check in the BIOS or UEFI if it directly reports the PCIe version or speed of devices connected.

Potential Causes and Solutions/Conclusion:

If the drive is not running in Gen 5 mode, potential causes include:

• Insufficient bandwidth: 👉The PCIEX16_2 slot might not provide enough bandwidth when a GPU occupies the primary PCIEX16 slot.👈
• BIOS configuration: Incorrect or default BIOS settings might not enable Gen 5 mode.
• Hardware compatibility issues: There could be compatibility issues between the Hyper M.2 card, the motherboard, or the WD SN8100 drive.

Apologies if anything you've already carried out gets repeated.

nb. I have one of my Gen 4 M2's in the shared slot of my z790 directly next to the GPU, and had to downgrade the GPU PCIe from Gen 5 to Gen 4 in the BIOS in order that I don't have a speed loss for the M2 (might be related somehow) - In fact the highlighted point above suggests that the GPU slot configuration does affect the secondary slot of your motherboard - which your Hyper Card is plugged into.

Identifying Compatible Motherboards (AI):

According to various sources, including ASUS's official website and tech review sites, some of the motherboards that support Gen5 include those from the Z790 and X670E series. Specifically, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 series and the ASUS PRIME X670E series are known for their extensive Gen5 support.

For instance, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme and ASUS PRIME X670E-UD are highlighted for their capability to support Gen5 on both their PCIe x16 slots for GPUs and certain M.2 slots for SSDs.

>
>
> I'm unsure which Z890 motherboards offer the same, but sure to be the top end model(s) - (i.e. the Maximus Z890 Extreme). Upgrading your motherboard to a Z790 Extreme instead of a Z890 Extreme would mean you wouldn't have to upgrade your processor also to a Core Ultra.

[bodhizapha]

Thank you for the reply. I have gone through everything on that list that is relevant to me, lol. It's been crazy. At this point, I'm thinking maybe it's a hardware issue. I bought another Hyper Card from Sabrent; I hope that fixes it. 

[bodhizapha]

Anyone else having this issue?

[dennys2009]

Hi!
If you had a CPU i9-14900K, it would be interesting to try turning on the system without an MSI RTX4070 video adapter. Will the motherboard then give mode 5.0. If even then it does not give out, then the hardware is not compatible with SSD and Hyper M.2 cards.
Check for newer firmware for SSD WD BLACK SN8100. Try with a different graphics card, such as MSI RTX4060.

[bodhizapha]

Well I can't just get another video card. I did order another gen 5 m.2...I ordered a 2tb crucial p510 or something and I installed the sabrent gen 5 m.2 card and still the samething runs at 4th gen. I will report back after trying the new ssd. if that is the case then it might be my mobo, but I find that hard to believe as everything works on it no errors or anything. Im lost. 600$ for this mobo and it does not have a gen 5 built into the mobo. 

[dennys2009]

Something tells me that you need to "dig" towards the video card. The motherboard is not the problem.

[bodhizapha]

I don't disagree with you on that. I do have access to my wife's 3060 so maybe that is an option to try. I did try to run the video card in the bottom one and the hyper card in the top and still the same thing. I will try later with the new drive and the new hyper card I got. I have sme options now. I will also run this drive to my buddies house he has an amd board with gen 5 built in.

[dennys2009]

It may be that for some reason PCIe x16_1 cannot enter 8x mode. The 4070 and 3060 graphics cards have 16 PCIex lanes, while the 4060 is guaranteed to use 8 lanes.
But if the cards were rearranged, then the PCIe port should x16_2 have switched to 8-line mode.

[bodhizapha]

But both of those cards run at gen 4 so they would not be taking any lanes from the gen 5 m.2. I figure if I had a 5070 that would be a different story.