Intel Z790 Motherboards with PCIe Gen5 M.2 Support
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Note: Updated in September 2023 with Z790 boards that have been refreshed or released since the article was originally published.
The availability of Gen5 SSDs has improved throughout 2023, but they are all quite pricey and based on the same Phison E26 controller. But whether or not you are looking to upgrade to Gen5 storage now or later, it’s great to have a straightforward upgrade path for such a drive when building a new system based on Raptor Lake and Z790.
While AMD made a PCI Express 5.0-enabled M.2 slot mandatory on X670 and even B650 motherboards, Intel’s high-end Z790 chipset only brings Gen5 PCIe lanes to the graphics card slot by default. Adding Gen5 M.2 support is still possible by having it share bandwidth with the GPU, but whether or not to do so is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturers.
You will probably not be surprised to learn that most manufacturers have opted to treat the Gen5 M.2 slot as a premium feature on their Z790 motherboards. Many mainstream and semi-premium models that are usually popular among gamers, such as the Asus Strix-A/F, MSI MAG Tomahawk, and Gigabyte Aorus Elite, all had to make do without.
ASRock is a bit more generous, however, and there are a few other exceptions. So, if this feature is at least somewhat important to you – but not worth burning through most of your budget on – you still have options. That said, there are no particularly cheap Z790 boards (it is the high-end chipset after all), and no boards offer a combination of both Gen5 M.2 and DDR4 RAM support.
Gigabyte Z790 Boards with Gen5 M.2
Gigabyte refreshed its Z790 boards in mid-2023 with ‘X’ versions of its existing E-ATX lineup and added the previously missing Pro X. The differences between ‘X’ and original revisions are noted in (brackets):
| Gigabyte Z790 w/ Gen5 M.2 | Z790 Aorus Xtreme (X) | Z790 Aorus Master (X) | Z790 Aorus Pro X | Z790 Aero G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
|
| Form Factor | E-ATX | E-ATX | ATX | ATX |
| VRM Config | 105A 20+1+2 (24+1+2) | 105A 20+1+2 | 18+1+2 (70A?) | 16+1+2? (70A?) |
| RAM Support | DDR5-8000 (DDR5-8266) | DDR5-8000 (DDR5-8266) | DDR5-8266 | DDR5-7600 |
| M.2 Slots | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 |
| SATA Ports | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| LAN | 1x Marvell 10Gbps 1x Intel 2.5Gbps | Marvell 10Gbps | Realtek 5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps |
| WiFi | Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1690 (Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7) | Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1690 (Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7) | MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 MT7927 | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 |
| USB - Rear | 2x Thunderbolt 4 (C) 10x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) | 2x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 1 (C) 7x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 1x USB 2.0 (C) 4x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 2x USB 2.0/1.1 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 2x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| USB - Header | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 4x 3.2 Gen 1 4x USB 2.0/1.1 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 4x 3.2 Gen 1 4x USB 2.0/1.1 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 2x 3.2 Gen 1 4x USB 2.0/1.1 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 2x 3.2 Gen 1 4x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| MSRP | N/A | $499 | $389 | $299 |
| Official Product Page | Link | Link | Link | Link |
| Price Check | Newegg | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK | Newegg | Newegg |
For now, Gigabyte offers Gen5 M.2 slots only with the two E-ATX Aorus models, the Pro X (a standard ATX model), and the creator-oriented Aero G model. The more mainstream Aorus Elite and Gaming X varieties use the standard configuration with PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs and one PCIe 5.0 x16 GPU slot.
Asus Z790 Boards with Gen5 M.2
| Asus Z790 w/ Gen5 M.2 | ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme | ROG Maximus Z790 Apex | ROG Maximus Z790 Hero | ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming | ROG Strix Z790-I Gaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
|
| Form Factor | E-ATX | ATX | ATX | ATX | ITX |
| VRM Config | 24+1 (105A) | 24+0 (105A) | 20+1 (90A) | 18+1 (90A) | 10+1 (105A) |
| RAM Support | DDR5-7800 | DDR5-8000 | DDR5-7800 | DDR5-7800 | DDR5-7600 |
| M.2 Slots | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 (bundled AiC) 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 1x Gen4 x4 |
| SATA Ports | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| LAN | 1x Marvell 10Gbps 1x Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps |
| WiFi | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6E |
| USB - Rear | 1x Thunderbolt 4 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 8x 3.2 Gen 2 (A/C) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 5x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) | 2x Thunderbolt 4 (C) 6x 3.2 Gen 2 (A/C) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 7x 3.2 Gen 2 (A/C) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (A) | 2x Thunderbolt 4 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 3x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 1x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 2x USB 2.0 |
| USB - Header | 1x Thunderbolt 4 4x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (60W PD) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 2x USB 2.0 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (60W PD) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 2x USB 2.0 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (60W PD) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 2x USB 2.0 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (30W PD) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 2x USB 2.0 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 1x 3.2 Gen 1 |
| MSRP | $999 | $699 | $629 | $499 | $469 |
| Official Product Page | Link | Link | Link | Link | Link |
| Price Check | Newegg | Newegg | Amazon Newegg | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK | Amazon Newegg |
As their names imply, the Maximus boards are pretty much maxed out as far as connectivity goes. They come with two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots (running at x8/x8 if both are used). In other words, all PCIe 5.0 bandwidth is on full-length expansion slots, so Asus instead expands the M.2 storage options via a bundled add-in card and/or DIMM-to-M.2 module.
Nevertheless, due to the chipset limitations, there’s just one PCIe Gen5 M.2 slot regardless of the solution used.
The popular RoG Strix lineup also tends to be full-featured, but only the Z790-E and the mITX model Z790-I have the option to add a Gen5 SSD (via onboard slots in this case). Unfortunately, the Z790-F and Z790-A are lacking in that department and the same goes for all TUF- and Prime-series boards (and the single ProArt).
MSI Z790 Boards with Gen5 M.2
In keeping with tradition, MSI has updated its Z790 lineup with ‘Max’ revisions. Differences are noted in (brackets).
| MSI Z790 w/ Gen5 M.2 | MEG Z790 Godlike (Max) | MEG Z790 Ace | MPG Z790 Carbon (Max) | MPG Z790 Edge Ti Max | MPG Z790 Tomahawk Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
|
| Form Factor | E-ATX | E-ATX | ATX | ATX | ATX |
| VRM Config | 105A 26+4 | 105A 24+1+2 | 105A 19+1+1 | 90A 16+1+1 | 90A 16+1+1 |
| RAM Support | DDR5-7800 | DDR5-7800 | DDR5-7600 (DDR5-7800) | DDR5-7800 | DDR5-7800 |
| M.2 Slots | 1x Gen5 x4 5x Gen4 x4 1x Gen3 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 4x Gen4 x4 | 1x Gen5 x4 3x Gen4 x4 |
| SATA Ports | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| LAN | 1x Marvell 10Gbps 1x Intel 2.5Gbps | 2x Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps | Intel 2.5Gbps |
| WiFi | Intel Wi-Fi 6E (Wi-Fi 7) | Intel Wi-Fi 6E (Wi-Fi 7) | Intel Wi-Fi 6E (Wi-Fi 7) | Wi-Fi 7 | Wi-Fi 7 |
| USB - Rear | 2x Thunderbolt 4 7x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) | 2x Thunderbolt 4 7x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 6x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 4x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 4x 3.2 Gen 2 (A) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) |
| USB - Header | 2x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (60W PD) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 4x USB 2.0 | 2x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (60W PD) 4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 4x USB 2.0 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 4x USB 2.0 (+USB4 AiC) | 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 4x USB 2.0 | 1x 3.2 Gen 2 (C) 2x 3.2 Gen 1 (A) 4x USB 2.0 |
| MSRP | $1,199 | N/A | $479 | N/A | N/A |
| Official Product Page | Link | Link | Link | Link | Link |
| Price Check | Newegg | Newegg | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK | N/A | N/A |
Like Gigabyte and Asus, MSI reserves PCIe 5.0 SSD support mainly for the enthusiast models. The ultra-premium E-ATX Z790 Godlike, for example, is equipped with no less than seven M.2 slots, but only one of them offers four lanes of Gen5 greatness. MSI’s Z790 Carbon board gets a full set of storage options as well, but also a premium price for this generation.
Along with the other Max revisions, however, MSI has added a Gen5 M.2 slot to the Z790 Edge (Ti Max) and Tomahawk (Max) models. These boards have yet to reach retail at the time of writing, but will hopefully come with more moderate price tags like their non-Max counterparts.
ASRock Z790 Boards with Gen5 M.2
ASRock Z790
w/ Gen5 M.2Z790 Taichi
(Lite)Z790
LiveMixerZ790
Steel LegendZ790
PG Riptide
Form Factor E-ATX ATX ATX ATX
VRM Config 24+1+2
(105A)14+1+1
(60A)16+1+1
(60A)14+1+1
(50A)
RAM Support DDR5-7200 DDR5-6800 DDR5-6800 DDR5-6800
M.2 Slots 1x Gen5 x4
4x Gen4 x41x Gen5 x4
4x Gen4 x41x Gen5 x4
4x Gen4 x41x Gen5 x4
4x Gen4 x4
SATA Ports 8 4 8 8
LAN 2.5Gbps
Killer E3100G
(+ 1Gbps)2.5Gbps
(RTL8125BG)2.5Gbps
(RTL8125BG)2.5Gbps
(Killer E3100G)
WiFi Wi-Fi 6E N/A Wi-Fi 6E N/A
USB -
Rear2x Thunderbolt 4
2x 3.2 Gen 2 (A)
6x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
2x USB 2.02x 3.2 Gen 2 (C)
2x 3.2 Gen 2 (A)
4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
6x USB 2.01x 3.2 Gen 2 (C)
1x 3.2 Gen 2 (A)
8x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)2x 3.2 Gen 2 (A)
1x 3.2 Gen 1 (C)
4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
2x USB 2.0
USB -
Header1x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C)
4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
4x USB 2.01x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C)
4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
4x USB 2.01x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C)
4x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
3x USB 2.01x 3.2 Gen 2x2 (C)
2x 3.2 Gen 1 (A)
4x USB 2.0
MSRP $479 $259 $289 $229
Official
Product PageLink Link Link Link
Price
CheckAmazon
Newegg
Amazon UKNewegg Amazon
Newegg
Amazon UKAmazon
Newegg
Amazon UK
What sets ASRock apart is that even its original mainstream Z790 motherboards include a Gen5 M.2 slot. Of course, this is not without some compromises in other areas such as a lack of wireless LAN and seemingly less powerful power delivery solutions. ASRock’s E-ATX Taichi is also not a ‘spare-no-expenses’ model like the MSI Godlike but still includes Thunderbolt 4.
Post-launch changes to ASRock’s Z790 lineup include a more affordable revision of the Taichi, labeled Taichi Lite. Most of the key features from the high-end sibling are still there but the heatsink setup and some visual highlights have been trimmed.
What are the tradeoffs?
Leading up to the launch of Raptor Lake and the Z790 chipset, there were rumors back and forth about support for Gen5 SSDs. It was eventually revealed that the new platform would indeed not offer PCIe 5.0 bandwidth for anything but the full-length primary slot, which normally houses the GPU. This is arguably an odd design choice, seeing as no graphics card today or in the near future is likely to require 16 lanes of PCI-Express 5.0 bandwidth.
To enable Gen5 bandwidth for an M.2 SSD slot (PCIe 5.0 x4), the apparent solution is therefore to split the lanes of the full-length x16 slot and reduce it to PCIe 5.0 x8. This is still more than enough bandwidth for any current-gen GPU.
However, for the same reason, there are no PCIe 5.0-enabled graphics cards on the market – not even the RTX 4090 or RX 7900 XTX use the new interface. The potential problem this poses is that current-gen GPUs will have to make do with PCIe 4.0 x8, which is equal to PCIe 3.0 x16. Fortunately, this still seems to be enough even for high-end GPUs of this generation – at least in a vast majority of cases, as demonstrated here by GamersNexus:
Great list, thank you so much! I think you should also mention which motherboards share bandwidth with the GFX slots if there is an M.2 Drive in the PCIE5 M.2 slot. It would add much more context when choosing which board to select.
For example, I checked Z790 AERO G by Gigabyte and in their spec sheet it says
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 5.0 and running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* The PCIEX16 slot shares bandwidth with the M2C_CPU connector. The PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode when a device is installed in the M2C_CPU connector
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
This is a very severe limitation for people like me who are planning on making our setups a little future-proof than normal.
Thanks Siddharth! And sorry about the late reply… To clarify, this is what must be done with all Z790 boards as the chipset is originally specified for one x16 Gen5 slot (full-size), so adding a Gen5 M.2 slot is always a compromise.
This doesn’t seem to matter much at this point, but it’s of course possible that it becomes a limitation at some point in the future.
I want to build an audio production PC with the Asus ProArtZ790 creator. I understand that main PCIe 5 slot is shared with the graphics card. Since I’m not using a graphics card but using the integrated graphics on the i7-13700k, is that PCIe slot fully functional for a PCIe gen 4 SSD? from everything I’ve heard it is supposed to be fully functional.
I also intend on using DDR5 ram at 5600Mxfers with CL28 and limiting the speed in the bios to 5200 (or more but < 5600?). Is this a good setting for these choices and the 13700K? Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks. Great videos.
Hi Mark. Good luck with your build! The ProArt is a bit unusual with 2x full-size PCIe 5 slots (1x 16-lane or 2x 8-lane config). These slots are presumably intended for rendering with dual graphics cards running at Gen5 x8. That would be next-gen cards, though, as the current ones are all Gen4.
There are also four Gen4 M.2 SSD slots. If you need more than that, you could use an x16/x8 M.2 adapter. Theoretically even for Gen5 SSDs with something like this: https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-shows-off-pcie-gen5-m-2-expander-z-card-for-next-gen-storage-up-to-128gb-s
Not sure what you mean with the RAM? If you have a 5600/CL28 kit, why limit it to 5200 MT/s? Or is it not CL28-spec but you want to tweak the timings?
I think you are mistaken in claiming the Z790 LiveMixer includes thunderbolt ports.
I had one in my cart, and wanted to double check some specs, then realized that an additional limited stock availability card $150-$500 depending on source is required to to add thunderbolt to that motherboard.
Thanks Paul, you are absolutely correct! Most likely I misinterpreted the board’s Thunderbolt AIC connector as being onboard Thunderbolt. I changed it right away.
Thanks for your list, regardless, it pointed me in the right direction. I decided to go with the Z790 PG Riptide. I “needed” M.2 Gen 5 more than spending +$200 extra for thunderbolt to test a new 2TB 12,000 MB/s drive for a review as I have other TB4 systems around. I can set up a search for a cheap used TB 4 card on auction sites.
Appreciate your work.
Now that Seagate has just today released its Firecuda 540 gen5 SSD lineup, dropping one in my computer slowly becomes doable … BUT … as all motherboard manufacturers (via Z790 chipset) now need to split up the 16 lanes between our GPU and M.2 slot … installing it has a cost.
Or we sit with what we have, skip the generation and wait for the the future generation that offers both the M.2 and the GPU, 16 lanes independently.
So ya, the question becomes … did the mobo manufacturers (and intel) bite off more than they could chew by creating this limit we fall into today, and kneecap their own future sales from those of us who realized we wouldnt benefit long term once gen5 m.2’s hit the market?
The best we can do is halve the lanes our GPU’s can use.
… I think I’ll wait.
Does it support PCIe Gen5 IDE/DOE Feature? please provide the documentation link for details.