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Asus Maximus VII Ranger - M.2 is it PCI-E 2.0 or 3.0?

jdj9
Level 7
Hello everyone,

I've been searching for a few days now all the info i could get regarding the M.2 port on my mobo, but i could not find anywhere (not even in manual) any clear answer whether it is a 2.0 or a 3.0 slot.

Whether it is a 2.0 or a 3.0 makes a difference on the M.2 SSD i am planning to buy and i need to make the best decision before my purchase.

Anyone can shed some light on this?

Also, i found out that the slot runs at x4 speed (PCIe Socket 3). Is this correct?


Thanks.
J.
19,317 Views
10 REPLIES 10

MNMadman
Level 8
When a manufacturer brags about M.2 having 10Gbps transfer rates, that means it's PCIe 2.0 x2. The best you'll get on those is about 700-800Mbps with a 950 Pro or other NVMe drive, which is still 200-300Mbps higher than the fastest SATA SSDs.

PCIe 2.0 x4 would be 20Gbps.
PCIe 3.0 x4 (or as some call it, "Ultra M.2") would be 32Gbps.

With that limitation it's actually a better deal to get a larger standard SATA SSD, rather than pay extra for performance you won't get.

thank you!

MNMadman wrote:
When a manufacturer brags about M.2 having 10Gbps transfer rates, that means it's PCIe 2.0 x2. The best you'll get on those is about 700-800Mbps with a 950 Pro or other NVMe drive, which is still 200-300Mbps higher than the fastest SATA SSDs.

PCIe 2.0 x4 would be 20Gbps.
PCIe 3.0 x4 (or as some call it, "Ultra M.2") would be 32Gbps.

With that limitation it's actually a better deal to get a larger standard SATA SSD, rather than pay extra for performance you won't get.


thank you!

Nate152
Moderator

Nate152 wrote:
Here's a member using the 950 pro with an adapter card in the maximus vi hero and getting advertised speeds.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?78823-Anyone-using-an-M-2-SSD-with-Maximus-Hero-VI


thank you!

I am also cosindering the Intel 750 Series PCIe 400GB 3.0 x4. What i need to know is whether it will work on the second x16 PCI 3.0 slot (red) that is used for a second gfx card in SLI. If yes, will it reduce the speed of the first x16 3.0 port (the one my gfx card is installed on) to x8? This happens when SLI mode is enabled.

All opinions are appreciated.

Thanks.

Chino
Level 15

Chino wrote:
If you populate the other PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 slot, your GPU will drop to x8.


That's what i thought too. Thanks mate.

Chino
Level 15