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These ASUS X470 and B450 boards support PCIe 4.0!
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These ASUS X470 and B450 boards support PCIe 4.0!

by Vyncent ChanJuly 15, 2019
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There has been rumors of AMD X470 and B450 boards supporting PCIe 4.0. And certain manufacturers actually released BIOSes for the older boards, adding support for the faster interface on them. But then AMD themselves explained that they won’t be enabling PCIe 4.0 officially on the older boards, citing questionable reliability and the more stringent requirements that PCIe 4.0 imposes upon the motherboards. But, if you still want to, you can.

These ASUS X470 and B450 boards support PCIe 4.0! 23

Awesome future proofing?

ASUS has apparently published a list of their boards, some of which support PCIe 4.0 on their primary M.2 SSD slots, while some even supporting the full set: PCIe 4.0 x16 on the primary PCIe slot and PCIe 4.0 x4 for SSDs. For most users at this point in time, the latter is of more value, because GPUs are far from being bottlenecked by the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Not to mention the only consumer GPUs supporting PCIe 4.0 are the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and AMD Radeon RX 5700, which are mid-range cards.

So here’s the full list of ASUS’ X470 and B450 motherboards supporting PCIe 4.0, as well as the BIOSes you need to enable the support:

ASUS PCIe 4.0 support

Chipset Motherboard BIOS PCIe x16_1 slot M.2_1 slot
X470 ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi) 2406 No PCIe 4.0 x4
ROG Crosshair VII Hero 2406 No PCIe 4.0 x4
ROG Strix X470-I Gaming 2406 No PCIe 4.0 x4
ROG Strix X470-F Gaming 5007 PCIe 4.0 x8 PCIe 4.0 x4
Prime X470-Pro 5007 PCIe 4.0 x8 PCIe 4.0 x4
TUF X470-Plus Gaming 5007 PCIe 4.0 x16 No
B450 ROG Strix B450-E Gaming 2406 No PCIe 4.0 x4
ROG Strix B450-F Gaming 2406 No PCIe 4.0 x4
ROG Strix B450-I Gaming 2406 No PCIe 4.0 x4
TUF Gaming B450M-Plus 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
TUF Gaming B450M-Pro 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
TUF Gaming B450-Pro 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
TUF Gaming B450-Plus 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
Prime B450M-A 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
Prime B450M-K 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
B450M-Dragon 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
B450M-D3V 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
Prime B450-Plus 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
Prime B450M-Gaming/BR 1607 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4

For some reason, ASUS’ more affordable B450 boards offer better support for the PCIe 4.0 standard than even their flagship ROG Crosshair VII Hero. Do note that ASUS won’t be able to continue supporting these features in upcoming BIOS versions since AMD has already issued the directive to not support PCIe 4.0 on older platforms. When AMD releases newer AGESA updates to improve performance on the 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen processors, you will have to choose whether PCIe 4.0 is more important to you, or better CPU performance.

These ASUS X470 and B450 boards support PCIe 4.0! 24

Meanwhile, here’s a tempting screenshot of a PCIe 4.0 SSD running at 5GB/s on a TUF Gaming B450M-Pro.

For the less ambitious of y’all, ASUS has also released BIOS updates to the X370 and B350 boards to support the AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPUs. No PCIe 4.0 support, but not every vendor is supporting the latest CPUs on the aging platforms, which celebrated its 2nd birthday back in March. If you own any of the older ASUS boards, you are in luck. The 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen processors are just a drop in upgrade for you.

Pokdepinion: I was planning on getting the ROG Crosshair VII Hero with my Ryzen 7 3700X… I guess I have every reason to do so now!

About The Author
Vyncent Chan
Technology enthusiast, casual gamer, pharmacy graduate. Strongly opposes proprietary standards and always on the look out for incredible bang-for-buck.
2 Comments
  • Guest
    July 15, 2019 at 10:21 am

    You forgot to also include Asus TUF Gaming B450-Plus in your list for PCIe 4.0 x16 support and PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 support. Asus TUF Gaming B450-Pro is too expensive like around $300 on Newegg so the Plus model is a better choice unless if somebody wants to go with the microATX models or the Prime models instead.

    This proves that AMD was lying to all of us about no PCIe 4.0 support for older motherboards unless if there is x570 chipset. The numbers of pcie lanes and the thickness of the copper lanes are enough to support higher electric signals for Pcie 4.0 on the older motherboards. The support for PCIe 4.0 is not coming from the X570 chipset with noisy chipset fan but it is directly from the Ryzen 3000 series processors themselves. Never ever trust these corporations since their job is to rip our wallet more or make us pay more so they can make more profit for themselves. I do electronic repairs so I do have basic knowledge when it comes to electric signal in hertz or voltage.

    • Vyncent Chan
      July 15, 2019 at 1:52 pm

      Sorry I missed that out. I have added it to the article. The AMD X570 chipset does have a number of PCIe 4.0 lanes to handle storage too, so it isn’t entirely true that the X570 isn’t offering any PCIe 4.0 support. AMD has probably announced that because there are many subpar boards out there based on B450 and X470 which might indirectly show AMD in a bad light if they announce support for PCIe 4.0 on older boards, but when the boards don’t perform up to standards, AMD and board vendors will be the ones taking the flak. Thus I believe it was just easier for AMD to announce that the older boards do not support PCIe 4.0.

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