Intel's 11th gen Rocket Lake processors are just around the corner with a March 30 release date, bringing with it PCIe 4.0 support. Yes, blue team members will finally be able to make the most of the best SSD for gaming with faster NVMe speeds up to 7000MB/s. If you're upgrading from a 10th gen Comet Lake CPU, however, you might not need to swap your motherboard out for a new one to get access to the feature like we originally thought.
Although Intel hasn't had the best track record with backwards compatibility, MSI's been one step ahead with forward compatibility, confirming that all its Z490 motherboards now support the new standard. You'll need to perform a BIOS update to unlock the feature, but this is a small price to pay to avoid forking out for an upgrade when you already own the best gaming motherboard.
As MSI confirms, PCIe 4.0 compatibility requires "several components on the motherboard" such as a "PCIe 4.0-ready clock generator, lane switch, redriver, PCIe slots, and M.2 connectors." This means if you're not part of the MSI crew and your motherboard's manufacturer didn't prepare its Z490 models, you might be out of luck, as no amount of software updates can make up for a lack of hardware.
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