PCIe 5.0 motherboard debates heat up over SSD and GPU support, but do you need it for PC gaming?

pcinvasion.com:

Choosing the right motherboard can be confusing due to the plethora of specification and configuration options one must account for when piecing together a new gaming PC. One thing that will undoubtedly cause more confusion and debate in the near future is the PCIe 5.0 motherboard spec. It’s the latest and greatest thing; it offers tons of bandwidth for high performance components to function properly.

The problem lies with getting your system up to snuff for PCIe 5.0, as it is only supported on the latest Intel 12th gen and the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs and motherboards. Fortunately, you won’t need to worry about having PCIe 5.0 anytime soon.

Components relevant to high-end PC gaming requirements are centered around the PCIe 4.0 spec and will remain that way for the next couple of years at least. This can get confusing, though, due to online debates among PC power users and those who like to look at specs on paper versus realistic application. And, as mentioned, we can see that Intel 12th generation motherboards already offer PCIe 5.0 support. The same will also be true of AMD Ryzen 7000 Series boards.

The PCIe 5.0 spec will be useful for creators and professionals that want more performance, but it won’t do much good for gamers anytime soon. This mainly boils down to the lack of software support for said hardware, along with financial costs. Tack on the configuration limitations of PCIe 5.0 motherboards, and we have a recipe for how to overspend on a gaming PC.

Pictured is the Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Ultra, which supports PCIe 5.0 x16 in the primary graphics card slot and up to four PCIe 4.0 SSDs. (Image credit: PC Invasion).

The main difference you need to know between PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 is that PCIe 5.0