Perhaps you are upgrading to a new computer and want to know which motherboards will work with the latest generation of CPUs. Or maybe you want to know which devices are available that support PCIe 5.0. In this article, we'll fill you in on the details for future-proofing your system to support PCIe 5.0 speeds.
Intel's 12th generation Core processors, code-named "Alder Lake," support PCIe 5.0. Intel 12th Gen Core CPUs use an LGA 1700 socket.
AMD has not yet released its PCIe 5.0 processors but is expected to include PCIe 5.0 support in their next-generation Zen 4 architecture, which AMD will release in the second half of 2022.
For 12th Gen Intel CPUs, PCIe 5.0 support means either one x16 or two x8 PCIe slots can run at PCIe 5.0 speeds for graphics or storage purposes. The CPUs provide four additional PCIe 4.0 lanes (e.g., an x4 slot) that you can only use for storage devices.
For compatibility with Intel's 12th Gen Core CPUs, you'll need to use a motherboard with a Z690, H670, B660, or H610 chipset. Motherboards with the Z690 chipset were the first ones available, while motherboards with the other chipsets are starting to be released throughout 2022.
The W680 and Q670 chipsets are intended for workstation and business use cases; their availability in stand-alone motherboards is limited.
for a specific 12th Gen Core CPU:
Z690 | H670 | B660 | H610 | W680 | Q670 | |
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Recommended Usage | For Enthusiast Gamer PCs | For General Home and Gaming PCs | For Budget PCs | For Barebones PCs | For High-End Creative/Engineering Workstations | For Nicer Business PCs |
Motherboard Availability | Limited | Limited | ||||
Launch Date | Q4 2021 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2022 |
CPU Overclocking See Exceptions: MOTHERBOARD |
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Memory Overclocking | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PCIe 5.0 Slots via Processor | One x16 or Two x8 | One x16 or Two x8 | One x16 | One x16 | One x16 or Two x8 | One x16 or Two x8 |
PCIe 4.0 Slots via Processor | One x4 | One x4 | One x4 | None | One x4 | One x4 |
PCIe 4.0 Lanes via Chipset | Up to 12 | Up to 12 | Up to 6 | None | Up to 12 | Up to 12 |
PCIe 3.0 Lanes via Chipset | Up to 16 | Up to 12 | Up to 8 | 8 | Up to 16 | Up to 12 |
Memory Channels | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Integrated Wireless | Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) | Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) | Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) | Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) | Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) | Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+) |
DMI 4.0 Lanes | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) | Up to 4 | Up to 2 | Up to 2 | None | Up to 4 | Up to 4 |
USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (10 Gbps) | Up to 10 | Up to 4 | Up to 4 | Up to 2 | Up to 10 | Up to 8 |
USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 (5 Gbps) | Up to 10 | Up to 8 | Up to 6 | Up to 4 | Up to 10 | Up to 10 |
USB 2.0 Ports | 14 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 14 | 14 |
Wi-Fi 6E | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SATA 3.0 Ports | Up to 8 | Up to 8 | Up to 4 | Up to 4 | Up to 8 | Up to 8 |
PCIe RAID | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | None | None | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
SATA RAID | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | None | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
MOTHERBOARD The motherboard must support overclocking to use overclocking capabilities. Motherboards with Z-prefixed chipsets more commonly support overclocking.
Note that the chipsets don't provide PCIe 5.0 lanes for M.2 storage devices. PCIe 5.0 is only available for the PCI-Express slots connected directly to the CPU. However, the chipsets do use a new DMI 4.0 link which is twice as fast as the 3.0 link used by the 500-series chipsets.
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Find Z690 Chipset 12th Gen Motherboards on Amazon (affiliate link).
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Find H670 Chipset 12th Gen Motherboards on Amazon (affiliate link).
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Find B660 Chipset 12th Gen Motherboards on Amazon (affiliate link).
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Find H610 Chipset 12th Gen Motherboards on Amazon (affiliate link).
Check out my Recommended PCIe 5.0 CPUs and Motherboards below.
Because DDR4 and DDR5 are not backward or forward compatible, you must decide which one you want to go with before selecting a motherboard.
DDR5 memory is currently more expensive than DDR4.
However, it offers up to double the stock data rates of DDR4. Overclockers could push this limit even further.
Additionally, DDR5 supports higher-capacity UDIMMs (128 GB vs. 32 GB).
DDR5 may experience slower timings at initial release but should be much better than DDR4 as the technology matures. However, keep in mind that the timings scale inversely with the clock rate (frequency). The timing values are in units of clock cycles, but more cycles are happening per second with DDR5. For example, DDR3-2133 CL10 has nearly the same latency as DDR5-8400 CL40. So don't let the CL40 timings of DDR5 scare you away; the number just looks bigger!
DDR4 | DDR5 | |
---|---|---|
Max UDIMM (Unbuffered) Capacity | 32 GB | 128 GB |
Bandwidth | 12800–25600 MB/s | 38400–57600 MB/s |
Transfer Rate | 1600–3200 MT/s | 4800–7200 MT/s |
Base Frequency | 800–1600 MHz | 2400–3600 MHz |
Effective Frequency | 1600–3200 MHz | 4800–7200 MHz |
Voltage | 1.2 V | 1.1 V |
On-die ECC | No | Yes |
Best Intel High-Performance Enthusiast CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K
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Up to 5.2 GHz: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
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16 cores (8 Performance + 8 Efficiency): Quite a few cores considering the frequency! This combination makes it a great all-around system that can handle almost any task.
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Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
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Check the latest price of the Intel Core i9-12900K on Amazon (affiliate link).
Intel Core i9-12900K Processor 16 Cores (8P+8E) up to 5.2 GHz Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
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For the Intel Core i9-12900K CPU, you'll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z690 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel's other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., H670, B660, H610).
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Our recommended DDR5 motherboard to pair with the i9-12900K is Gigabyte's Z690 AORUS Master:
GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Master Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory (DDR5 provides the fastest memory speeds)!
- 10 Gbps Ethernet port is faster than any home Internet speed available with tons of room to spare for file transfers.
- Wi-Fi 6E makes it easy to reach the fastest speeds and future-proof your Wi-Fi system.
- Bluetooth 5.2
is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
- Four x4 NVMe M.2
slots, which is fantastic! Three of these run at PCIe 4.0 speeds, and one at PCIe 3.0 speeds.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Master on Amazon (affiliate link).
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Our recommended DDR4 motherboard to pair with the i9-12900K is Gigabyte's Z690 AORUS Elite AX DDR4:
GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Elite AX DDR4 Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR4 memory!
- 2.5 Gb Ethernet port is faster than most home Internet speeds with room to spare for file transfers.
- Wi-Fi 6
- Bluetooth 5.2
is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
- Four x4 NVMe M.2
slots, which is fantastic! All four of these run at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Elite AX DDR4 on Amazon (affiliate link).
Best Value CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K
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Less than half the price of the i9-12900K, but still excellent performance at up to 4.9 GHz.
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10 cores (6 Performance + 4 Efficiency): This core count makes it suitable for everyday multi-threading tasks, such as having tons of browser windows open.
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Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
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Check the latest price of the Intel Core i5-12600K on Amazon (affiliate link).
Intel Core i5-12600K Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
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For the Intel Core i5-12600K CPU, you'll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z690 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel's other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., H670, B660, H610).
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Our recommended DDR5 motherboard to pair with the i5-12600K is GIGABYTE's Z690 AORUS PRO motherboard:
GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory!
- Three NVMe M.2
slots, which is excellent! These all run at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
- 2.5 Gb Ethernet port is faster than most home Internet speeds with room to spare for file transfers.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO on Amazon (affiliate link).
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Our recommended DDR4 motherboard to pair with the i5-12600K is GIGABYTE's Z690 Gaming X DDR4 motherboard:
GIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X DDR4 Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR4 memory!
- Four x4 NVMe M.2
slots, which is fantastic! All four of these run at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
- 2.5 Gb Ethernet port is faster than most home Internet speeds with room to spare for file transfers.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X DDR4 on Amazon (affiliate link).
Intel's 12th generation Core CPU uses an LGA 1700 socket.
Locked Intel CPUs may come with a stock CPU cooler. These CPU models do not have a "K" in the name. While stock coolers will prevent your CPU from overheating, your CPU will throttle its performance during games and other intensive tasks. Higher TDP coolers will keep your CPU at turbo speeds for longer durations. Stock coolers are often quite loud at their maximum speed.
The LGA 1700 socket will require a CPU cooler that supports the new socket size. Some manufacturers are releasing upgrade kits for LGA 1200 heatsinks to support the new size.
Best AIO Liquid Cooler: Enermax Liqmax III 360
- This Enermax liquid cooler has an excellent cooling capability with a 360-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power).
- Supports a variety of CPU sockets, including Intel LGA 2066, 2011-3, 2011, 1700, 1200, 1366, 1156, 1155, 1151, 1150 and AMD AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1.
- Quiet operation at 14-27 dBA.
- You can get the LGA 1700 Enermax Mounting Kit for LIQMAX III on Amazon (affiliate link) or request a free LGA 1700 mounting kit via the LGA 1700 Mounting Kit Request Form.
- Make sure your computer case dimensions support this, as it will take up a decent amount of space!
Enermax Liqmax III 360 Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
Best Dual-Fan Air CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
- Dual 140 mm fans provide 220-watt TDP (183 NSPR) of cooling capability.
- Supports a variety of CPU sockets, including Intel LGA 1700, 1200, 1156, 1155, 1151, 1150, 2011, 2066 and AMD AM4, AM3, AM3+, AM2, AM2+, FM2, FM2+.
- Quiet operation at 24.6 dBA.
Noctua NH-D15, Premium CPU Cooler Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
Runner Up - Dual-Fan Air CPU Cooler: Thermaltake TOUGHAIR 510
- This CPU cooler doesn't have any fancy LED lights, but the dual 120 mm fans do a great job of cooling LGA 1700 CPUs.
- Suppose you think this cooler will take up too much space. In that case, Thermaltake has a few single-fan TOUGHAIR variants which use different orientations.
- This CPU cooler has a 2000 RPM max speed for optimal cooling.
- 180-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power).
Thermaltake TOUGHAIR 510 Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
Before purchasing memory, review your motherboard specification to verify which speeds are supported. For example, if a DDR4 motherboard stated that it supports "DDR4 3400(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3300(O.C.) / 3200 / 3000," that would mean that it could support DDR4-3400, DDR4-3333, and DDR4-3300 with memory overclocking, and DDR4-3200 and DDR4-3000 at stock speeds. Motherboard specifications also indicate the maximum capacity per stick of RAM (DIMM) and across all slots.
Recommended DDR5: Corsair Vengeance DDR5
- At an effective frequency of 4800 MHz, this memory hits the fastest speeds supported by Intel Alder Lake (e.g., 12th Gen Core) CPUs without overclocking.
- Compact heat spreaders avoid conflicting with a CPU cooler.
- 32 GB provides ample memory for gaming and multitasking.
Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 4800MHz Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
Recommended DDR4: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4
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At an effective frequency of 3200 MHz, this memory hits the fastest supported stock DDR4 speeds.
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It is also available in other (effective) frequencies for overclockers, including 3600 MHz and 4000 MHz.
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Lower-speed versions are also available on Amazon, in various capacities, including DDR4-2933 (affiliate link), DDR4-2666 (affiliate link), and DDR4-2400 (affiliate link).
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The low-profile form factor ensures that the heat spreaders don't get in the way of other devices, including your CPU heatsink.
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
PCI-Express speeds are based on the PCI-Express version and the number of lanes used. One lane is referred to as x1, two lanes as x2, etc. PCI-Express technically supports up to a width of x32. However, most consumer motherboards have some set of these PCIe widths: x1, x2, x4, x8, x16.
PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 5.0 | |
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x1 Bandwidth | 2 GB/s | 4 GB/s |
x2 Bandwidth | 4 GB/s | 8 GB/s |
x4 Bandwidth | 8 GB/s | 16 GB/s |
x8 Bandwidth | 16 GB/s | 32 GB/s |
x16 Bandwidth | 32 GB/s | 63 GB/s |
Intel's 12th generation CPUs currently provide PCIe 5.0 support for CPU lanes (i.e., one x16 or two x8 PCIe slots) and PCIe 4.0/3.0 speeds for the remaining lanes.
The bandwidth for each PCIe 5.0 lane is 4 GB/s. 4 GB/s per lane means that if you use a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 device, it would have up to 64 GB/s of bandwidth available to it.
NVMe M.2 SSD cards use 2 or 4 lanes, which means they have 4–8 GB/s available to them with PCIe 4.0.
NVMe PCIe add-in cards can use up to 16 lanes in an x16 slot, thus having up to 32 GB/s of bandwidth available to them with PCIe 4.0.
In comparison, PCIe 3.0 has half of the bandwidth of PCIe 4.0.
x1 Bandwidth | 1 GB/s |
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x2 Bandwidth | 2 GB/s |
x4 Bandwidth | 4 GB/s |
x8 Bandwidth | 8 GB/s |
x16 Bandwidth | 16 GB/s |
The latest available version of PCI-Express is PCIe 5.0. PCIe 5.0 CPUs are available from Intel, while AMD currently only supports PCIe 4.0.
Intel's 12th generation Core CPUs currently provide PCIe 5.0 support for CPU lanes (i.e., one x16 or two x8 PCIe slots) and PCIe 4.0/3.0 speeds for the remaining lanes.
AMD's Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs will be their first to support PCIe 5.0. The Ryzen 7000 CPUs aren't expected to be available until the second half of 2022.
PCIe versions such as 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 are sometimes informally referred to as PCIe Gen 3, PCIe Gen 4, and PCIe Gen 5. This naming is based on them being the third, fourth, and fifth generations of PCI-Express.
PCIe 5.0 graphics cards and storage devices are not currently on the market.
Want to brush up on other new technologies to consider when building a computer? Check out these articles:
- CPUs:
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 5.0?
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 4.0?
- LGA 1700 CPU List
- LGA 1200 CPU List
- Look up an Intel or AMD CPU on TechReviewer for related recommendations:
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 5.0?
- CPU Coolers:
- Storage:
- Memory:
- PCI-Express:
- Motherboards:
- Graphics Cards:
- Power Supplies:
- Keyboards:
- Monitors:
Want to brush up on the latest PCIe products, versions, and features? Check out the articles in this PCI-Express series:
- What is PCIe?
, What is PCIe 5.0?
, and What is PCIe 4.0?
- Is PCIe 5.0 Worth It?
and Is PCIe 4.0 Worth It?
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 5.0?
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 4.0?
- Which Motherboards Support PCIe 5.0?
- Which Graphics Cards Support PCIe 4.0?
- How Fast is PCIe 5.0?
and How Fast is PCIe 4.0?
- Is PCIe Backward Compatible?
- Can I Put a PCIe x4 or x8 Card in an x16 Slot?
- Can I Use a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in a PCIe 3.0 Motherboard Slot?
- Can I Use a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD in a PCIe 4.0 Motherboard Slot?
- Can I Use a PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card in a PCIe 3.0 Slot?
- Can I Use a PCIe 3.0 Graphics Card in a PCIe 4.0 Slot?
- What is the Latest Version of PCIe?
- PCI vs. AGP vs. PCIe? Time to Upgrade!