Skip to main content

After a seven-year wait, PCI Express 4.0 will turbocharge your next PC

A new iteration of the humble PCI Express (PCIe) port could open up the floodgates for even more powerful graphics cards in the future, by increasing the available bandwidth by 100 percent. The new PCI Express 4.0 standard allows for the transfer of up to 64GBps in a duplex ×16 port.

PCI Express technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade and a half. It’s gone through several iterations, each one doubling available bandwidth. That has helped improve the capabilities of single and multiple graphics card configurations, and has also enabled the use of high-speed solid state drives (SSD) in form factors like M.2.

Recommended Videos

The debut of the latest generation of PCIe was announced by chairman and president of PCI-SIG, Al Yanes. He said in his blog post that PCIe 4.0 would bring about not only improved scalability for added lanes and bandwidth but a reduction in system latency, better lane margining, and “improved I/O virtualization.”

Although this sort of development will mostly benefit those running higher-end systems, especially those with multiple graphics cards in a single PC, there are potential benefits to those in lower-end systems, too. As ExtremeTech highlights, increased bandwidth for PCIe ports means that few lanes are required for devices. That means it should be possible for M.2 SSDs, or high-speed network cards to operate in ×1 or similar PCIe ports.

PCIe 4.0 also opens up the possibility of achieving greater power from external graphics cards, helping to leverage their full potential without needing to have them plugged directly into the motherboard.

As usual though, this sort of technology will take time to proliferate. Typically it can take months and even up to a year to see a new standard become commonplace. It will likely be found first in high-end motherboards before making the transition to lower-tier systems as time goes on.

As for the future, the PCI-SIG organization is already hard at work on PCI Express 5.0 — and that one is slated to show up much sooner. Although PCIe 4.0 took seven years to finalize, there are rumblings that 5.0 could take just two years to be standardized in the same fashion. That’s quite an ambitious goal, but if adhered to, could generate some big leaps in internal hardware capabilities over the next few years.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
Prime Day is over, but this powerful Dell laptop is still at its lowest price
The Dell Vostro 3530 laptop on a white background.

Prime Day is already over, but that doesn't mean that there are no more laptop deals for you to shop on Amazon. Here's one that caught our eye -- the Dell Vostro 3530 with 32GB of RAM for its lowest-ever price of $649, following a 28% discount on its original price of $899. This limited-time offer of $250 off may not last much longer though, so if you want to take advantage of this bargain, we highly recommend that you finalize your purchase for this device as soon as you can.

Buy Now

Read more
This Lenovo all-in-one computer is 30% off even though Prime Day has ended
The Lenovo V100 All-in-One Desktop Computer on a white background.

Even though Prime Day is already finished, there are still some excellent desktop computer deals on Amazon. If you don't have much space, or you just want to avoid clutter, you should take a look at the Lenovo V100 All-in-One PC. From its original price of $800, it's all the way down to just $560 following a 30% discount. The offer for this machine will only be available for a limited time though, so you need to act fast and proceed with the transaction immediately to secure the savings of $240.

Buy Now

Read more
The new Reachy Mini robot can let kids turn play into innovation
The Reachy Mini robot.

The Reachy Mini is an exciting new desktop robot aimed primarily at developers, educators, students, and enthusiasts, or basically anyone interested in creative coding.

There are actually two of them -- Reachy Mini Lite ($299) and Reachy Mini Wireless ($449) -- and both were developed by the prominent AI platform Hugging Face following its recent acquisition of Pollen Robotics. 

Read more