Hey all!

Currently running a GTX 1650 Super and 4 year old everything else.

It seems to me PCIE 4.0 SSD's are the main driver for how games for the next 5+ years will run differently from games previously.

I understand currently AMD X570 and B550 motherboards support PCIE 4.0.

I currently have a microATX case and unless I change the size of my computer would continue to use microATX motherboards.

It looks like the main PCIE slot (x16) on these motherboards is the only PCIE 4.0 slot so that you would have to choose between the graphics card or the SSD using that spot. I have heard any graphics card these days can work fine in a PCIE 3.0 slot, but does it fit properly? Do larger motherboards have more than one PCIE 4.0 slot?

What do you more experienced builders know is best for what to do? Is it smarter to wait until next year for more changes to occur?

Any knowledge is appreciated :)

The problem is that even if you could build a PC that mimics what the consoles are doing, there aren't any games out to test it on. I'd recommend waiting for a game that you must play and seeing how it runs on different hardware setups and budget accordingly.

That all said, yes you'll likely need PCIE 4.0 across the board. My assumption is that you'll need a 4.0 connection across the GPU, and (both?) nvme drives. This eventually gets into how many 4.0 lanes you even have available from your CPU and motherboard. And well you get the idea, just wait and start budgeting for a rather spendy PC.

If you're not in a hurry to replace your system, I'd wait and see. This stuff feels very "tidal shift" but it's going to take time to see where it goes, what'll be available, and how much it will cost

@peasforfees: Hey, thanks for taking the time to write all that out! I was kind of thinking to wait until at least Intel had PCIE 4.0 in 2021 and AMD was into their next boards to wait for a clearer picture, for some of those "launch window" and delayed launch next-gen console games to come out so this all makes sense.

@ry_ryI guess it makes sense like you said to wait for PCIE 4.0 to mature a little and become more standard before jumping the gun too early. I've only ever built a PC from scratch once back in 2016 and upgraded a few things here and there so I'm far from comfortable with it.