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Which Motherboards Support PCIe 5.0? (2022)

Find out how to choose a motherboards with PCI-Express 5.0 support.

Motherboard Timur Garifov / Unsplash

Last Updated: November 26, 2022

Written by Kevin Jones

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 Core i9-13900K Intel Core i9-13900K Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link

Which Motherboards Support PCIe 5.0?

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Intel's 12th and 13th generation Core processors, code-named "Alder Lake" and "Raptor Lake," support PCIe 5.0. Intel 12th and 13th Gen Core CPUs use an LGA 1700 socket.

AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, released in Q4 2022, also support PCIe 5.0. AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs use an AM5 socket.

AMD Motherboards

For maximum PCIe 5.0 support with AMD CPUs, use a motherboard with the X670E or B650E chipset. The X670 chipset only supports PCIe 4.0 for x8 and x16 slots.

Get motherboard recommendations
for a specific PCIe 5.0 AMD CPU:
AMD 600-Series Desktop Chipsets
X670E X670 B650E B650
Release Date September 2022 September 2022 October 2022 October 2022
CPU Overclocking Yes Yes Yes Yes
PCIe Lanes (Graphics)

One x16 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

or Two x8 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

One x16 at PCIe 4.0 speeds

or Two x8 at PCIe 4.0 speeds

One x16 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

or Two x8 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

One x16 at PCIe 4.0 speeds

or Two x8 at PCIe 4.0 speeds

PCIe Lanes (NVMe)

One x4 at PCIe 5.0 speeds (via CPU) and up to one x4 at PCIe 5.0 speeds (via chipset)

One x4 at PCIe 5.0 speeds (via CPU) and up to one x4 at PCIe 5.0 speeds (via chipset)

One x4 at PCIe 5.0 speeds (via CPU) and up to one x4 at PCIe 5.0 speeds (via chipset)

 One x4 at PCIe 4.0 speeds (via CPU)
Usable PCIe Lanes

Up to 44 total

24 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

Up to 44 total

8 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

Up to 36 total

24 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

Up to 44 total

0 at PCIe 5.0 speeds

10 Gbps USB (USB 3.2 Gen 2)

 12 12 6 6

20 Gbps USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2)

 2 2 1 1
Max SATA Ports 8 8 4 4
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Intel Motherboards

For compatibility with Intel's 12th and 13th Gen Core CPUs, you'll need to use a motherboard with a Z790, Z690, H670, B660, or H610 chipset.

The W680 and Q670 chipsets are intended for workstation and business use cases; their availability in stand-alone motherboards is limited.

For 12th and 13th Gen Intel Core 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.

Get motherboard recommendations
for a specific 13th Gen Core CPU:
Get motherboard recommendations
for a specific 12th Gen Core CPU:
Intel 700 and 600 Series Desktop Chipsets
Z790 Z690 H670 B660 H610 W680 Q670
Recommended Usage For Enthusiast Gamer PCs 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 2022 Q4 2021 Q1 2022 Q1 2022 Q1 2022 Q1 2022 Q1 2022

CPU Overclocking See Exceptions: MOTHERBOARD

 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
Memory Overclocking Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
PCIe 5.0 Slots via Processor One x16 or Two x8 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 x8 One x4 One x4 One x4 None One x4 One x4
PCIe 4.0 Lanes via Chipset Up to 20 Up to 12 Up to 12 Up to 6 None Up to 12 Up to 12
PCIe 3.0 Lanes via Chipset Up to 8 Up to 16 Up to 12 Up to 8 8 Up to 16 Up to 12
Memory Channels 2 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+) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+)
DMI 4.0 Lanes 8 8 8 4 4 8 8
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Up to 5 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 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 10 Up to 8 Up to 6 Up to 4 Up to 10 Up to 10
USB 2.0 Ports 14 14 14 12 10 14 14
Wi-Fi 6E Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SATA 3.0 Ports Up to 8 Up to 8 Up to 8 Up to 4 Up to 4 Up to 8 Up to 8
PCIe RAID 0, 10, 15 0, 1, 5, 10 0, 1, 5, 10 None None 0, 1, 5, 10 0, 1, 5, 10
SATA RAID 0, 10, 15 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.

ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link

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.

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Master GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Master Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link

Check out my Recommended Intel and Recommended AMD PCIe 5.0 CPUs and motherboards below.

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DDR4 or DDR5 Memory

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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!

Consumer DDR4 vs. DDR5
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
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Best Intel 13th Gen High-Performance CPU and Motherboard

  • Our recommended Intel 13th gen high-performance enthusiast CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K Intel Core i9-13900K Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
    • Up to 5.8 GHz max-turbo stock speed: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
    • 24 cores (8 Performance + 16 Efficiency): This combination makes it a great all-around system that can handle any task you throw at it.
    • Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
    • Check the latest price of the Intel Core i9-13900K on Amazon (affiliate link).
    • For the Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, you'll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z790 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel's other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., Z690, H670, B660, H610).
  • Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i9-13900K: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero 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)!
    • 2.5 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 5.3 is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
    • Five x4 NVMe M.2 slots, which is fantastic! One of these supports PCIe 5.0 speeds, and the rest run at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
    • USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
    • Check the latest price of the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero on Amazon (affiliate link).

Best Runner-Up Intel 13th Gen CPU and Motherboard

  • Our recommended Intel 13th gen high-performance enthusiast CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K Intel Core i7-13700K Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
    • Up to 5.4 GHz max-turbo stock speed: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
    • 16 cores (8 Performance + 8 Efficiency): This combination makes it a great all-around system that can handle almost any task.
    • Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
    • Check the latest price of the Intel Core i7-13700K on Amazon (affiliate link).
    • For the Intel Core i7-13700K CPU, you'll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z790 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel's other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., Z690, H670, B660, H610).
  • Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i7-13700K: ASUS Prime Z790-P WiFi ASUS Prime Z790-P WiFi 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)!
    • 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port is faster than any home Internet speed available with tons of room to spare for file transfers.
    • Wi-Fi 6 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.
    • Three x4 NVMe M.2 slots, which is fantastic! These slots all support PCIe 4.0 speeds.
    • USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
    • Check the latest price of the ASUS Prime Z790-P WiFi on Amazon (affiliate link).

Best Intel 12th Gen High-Performance CPU and Motherboard

  • Our recommended Intel 12th gen high-performance enthusiast CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K Processor 16 Cores (8P+8E) up to 5.2 GHz Intel Core i9-12900K Processor 16 Cores (8P+8E) up to 5.2 GHz Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
    • Up to 5.2 GHz: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
    • 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.
    • Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
    • Check the latest price of the Intel Core i9-12900K on Amazon (affiliate link).
    • 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).
  • Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i9-12900K: GIGABYTE 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).

Best Intel 12th Gen Value CPU and Motherboard

  • Our recommended Intel 12th gen value CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K Intel Core i5-12600K Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
    • Less than half the price of the i9-12900K, but still excellent performance at up to 4.9 GHz.
    • 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.
    • Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
    • Check the latest price of the Intel Core i5-12600K on Amazon (affiliate link).
    • 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).
  • Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i5-12600K: GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO 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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Best Feature CPU and Motherboard

Runner-Up CPU and Motherboard

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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.

Get RAM recommendations
for a specific Intel CPU:
Get RAM recommendations
for a specific AMD CPU:
  • At an effective frequency of 3200 MHz, this memory hits the fastest supported stock DDR4 speeds. Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link
  • It is also available in other (effective) frequencies for overclockers, including 3600 MHz and 4000 MHz.
  • 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).
  • The low-profile form factor ensures that the heat spreaders don't get in the way of other devices, including your CPU heatsink.

How Fast Is PCIe 5.0?

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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.

PCI-Express Speeds (Rounded)
PCIe 4.0 PCIe 5.0
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.

Samsung 980 1TB M.2 SSD Samsung 980 1TB M.2 SSD Check Price on Amazon Amazon Affiliate Link

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.

PCI-Express 3.0 Speed (Rounded)
x1 Bandwidth 1 GB/s
x2 Bandwidth 2 GB/s
x4 Bandwidth 4 GB/s
x8 Bandwidth 8 GB/s
x16 Bandwidth 16 GB/s

What Is the Latest Version of PCI-Express Available in CPUs?

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The latest available version of PCI-Express is PCIe 5.0. PCIe 5.0 CPUs are available from Intel and AMD.

Intel's 12th and 13th 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 are their first to support PCIe 5.0.

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.

Other Considerations When Building a PC

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Want to brush up on other new technologies to consider when building a computer? Check out these articles:

Learn More About PCI-Express

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Want to brush up on the latest PCIe products, versions, and features? Check out the articles in this PCI-Express series: