PCIe 5 vs PCIe 4 vs PCIe 3 Gaming Performance

We are testing the PCIe 5 vs PCIe 4 vs PCIe 3 Gaming Performance to see how each generation makes a performance difference.

PCIe Express technology is essential nowadays, especially for the latest generation of computing and gaming. Because of Technology advancements, PCI Express technology is getting faster and faster with newer and newer generations. It reduces the time loading the onscreen elements while delivering faster Game loading times.

As per the hardware, PCIe Express 3.0 is relatively slow compared to the latest gen Gen5 hardware when running different applications, while there isn’t much of a difference in games.

For the current generation of gaming, especially for multiplayer games, PCIe 5 or at least PCIe 4, delivers the best results in gaming and content creation-related applications. The faster your hardware works, the quicker you can see and take action. New Games utilize SSDs fully, and all the games nowadays list SSD as mandatory hardware for Gaming.

So without any further delay, let’s check out the PCIe 5 vs PCIe 4 vs PCIe 3 Gaming Performance and how much difference each generation makes regarding Game loading times.

PCIe 5 vs PCIe 4 vs PCIe 3- Test Setup Details

Here are the details specifications of the test rig we use to test out the different PCIe SSDs.

Processor	Intel Core i9-13900K CPU
Graphics Processor	Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 GPU
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z5 32GB DDR5 DDR5 6000 MHz
Storage	SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD with PCIe Express 3.0 SAMSUNG 980 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD with PCIe Express 4.0 GIGABYTE AORUS Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD as PCIe Express 5.0
Power Supply	EVGA 1600W 80+ Gold Fully Modular
CPU Cooler	Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 mm
Operating System	Windows 11 Pro 64bit

PCIe 5 vs PCIe 4 vs PCIe 3- Experimental Outcome Details

Here are the results we have achieved after conducting the Game loading test on these three different SSDs, and to be honest, we are not very impressed with the gaming performance.

GAME NAME vs PCIe TECHNOLOGY	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 4.0	PCIe 5.0	M.2 NVMe SSD Average Temperature
Hogwarts Legacy	00:05.852	00:05.764	00:05.608	62°C
Cyberpunk 2077	00:06.311	00:04.611	00:04.063	60°C
Forza Horizon 5	00:38.561	00:36.109	00:34.501	53°C
Horizon Zero Dawn	00:09.615	00:09.012	00:08.801	54°C
GTA V	00:15.156	00:14.251	00:12.563	56°C
SpiderMan Miles Morales	00:09.258	00:09.104	00:09.305	55°C
Sons of The Forest	00.32.256	00.32.065	00:30.502	58°C
Red Dead Redemption 2	00:26.312	00:25.702	00:23.201	62°C

Different PCIe Express Technology Gaming Performance- Final Thoughts

The above experiment shows a negligible difference between PCIe 5, PCIe 4, and PCIe 3 technology regarding Game Loading times. With a maximum difference of 2 seconds of loading time, PCIe Express 5.0 takes the lead from the other PCIe versions. Also, all PCIe M.2 NVMe SSDs maintained standard safe temperatures throughout the testing.

In the case of Multiplayer fast-paced games, every single millisecond counts, and thus having the fastest SSDs help in loading and registering the images, visuals, graphics, actions, movements, environments, map, texture quality, Anti Aliasing, etc., so that you can take action before your enemy does. So in these cases having the latest and the fastest SSDs does matter.

Apart from that, having a good SSD speeds up the overall system’s responsiveness, and having one in your RIG is crucial in 2023. And if you are looking to get the fastest Gen5 SSDs, you should check out these ten motherboards, as they have full support for Gen5 SSDs!

So this was all about PCIe 5 vs PCIe 4 vs PCIe 3 Gaming Performance. Let us know in the comments below if you think we missed anything.

That’s all, folks!

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