Ryzen users experienced PCIe 5.0 SSD speed degradation – AMD X670E boards are to blame

A significant number of owners of motherboards based on the AMD X670E chipset have encountered an unpleasant problem related to the operation of PCIe 5.0 SSDs, writes TechSpot. Due to some error in the software, their drives operate in PCIe 1.0 mode. The problem is made worse by the fact that it is not limited to boards from any specific manufacturer. This error occurs on different motherboards, including Asus and MSI.

Image source: TechSpot

Initially, PCIe 5.0 drives running on such boards provide the performance declared by the manufacturer. However, over time, performance begins to degrade significantly. In addition to PC slowdowns, some users have complained of crashes, system freezes, and problems loading the operating system. The problem manifests itself when the system simultaneously uses a PCIe 5.0 drive in the main M.2 slot of the motherboard and a modern discrete video card in the first PCIe x16 slot. According to the TechSpot portal, the complaints include Crucial T700 and T705 drive models and more.

Asus advises consumers experiencing slowdowns on their SSDs to contact the drive manufacturer for support. In turn, Crucial reported that it had conducted an internal investigation and concluded that the source of the problem may be the motherboard itself based on the AMD X670E chipset.

Crucial tested different models of boards based on the AMD X670E chipset from different manufacturers and were able to reproduce the problem of slowing down drives. The company recommends contacting motherboard manufacturers’ support to request a BIOS update to resolve the root cause.

«We would like to let you know that we have escalated your issue to our dedicated team for further investigation and they have advised us that the issue is with the motherboard and not with the Crucial SSD. This behavior has been observed on various motherboards from different manufacturers, and we were able to reproduce it on our internal systems as well. The problem appears to occur when the Gen5 SSD is connected to the Gen5 slot on the motherboard. This does not occur when using Gen4 drives. Using the Crucial T705 SSD in Gen4 mode would likely resolve this issue,” Crucial said in a statement posted on the Asus forum. But later this message was deleted.

Although the exact source of the problem has not yet been determined, there are some theories circulating online. According to one of them, the main PCIe 5.0 slot for graphics cards shares bandwidth with the first Gen 5 SSD slot in certain configurations. Such a scheme cannot be called ideal, since for optimal performance these lines should not be combined.

MSI has already released a new BIOS version (1.0c) for its boards. However, it reportedly does not completely solve the problem.