Will a 3.0 x4 SSD work WELL in a x16 or x16 (x4mode) slot?

[Koroskun]

Hello, I've thought of getting an ssd for awhile and I've finally begun searching, I've found an SSD M.2 that I believe is good for gaming. However, it says that it uses a 3.0 x4 slot.

My motherboard only has a x16 slot and also x16 (x4 mode) slot.

My question is, will I be able to install a 3.0 x4 SSD M.2 into any of my x16 slots without it being slowed down?


My MOBO: Gigabyte ga B85M-D3H (https://www.cnet.com/products/gigabyte-ga-b85m-d3h-1-0-motherboard-micro-atx-lga1150-socket-b85/specs/)

SSD: Intel SSD 600p series (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820167411)

Other Hardware info:
GPU (Graphics Card): GTX 770
CPU: (Processor): Intel i5 4460
Storage (Getting an SSD as an EXTRA drive): Hitachi HDS721010CLA632 (http://www.pc-specs.com/storage/Hitachi/HDS721010CLA632_1TB/82)

PSU: 600w (I don't really know everything about it).
RAM: 8GB ~1200MHz (Memory is not the problem as it's never above 90%. EVER, I could be wrong though as there might me some different problem, I'm already planning on getting 16 gb one day.)


Oh, and if you have any ideas of any GOOD SSDS for gaming (specifically Black Desert Online), game freezes alot in cities.) feel free to let me know! (Price tag ~100-140 euros)

Thanks for your time.

[Big Boom Boom]

At low budget and for gaming purpose you may as well go with SATA III SSD.

BDO freezes in city is due to your hardware. You need a very high clocked 4-7th gen Intel CPU (higher 4.5Ghz) or AMD Ryzen clocked at 4Ghz to get less freeze. There will still be microstutter it's an MMO not a single player game. Assets are being constantly loaded and even streamed e.g custom guild banner.

[Koroskun]

The only reason I actually looked at this 600p intel SSD is because it had a WAY higher score than any of the other SSDs I saw in that list, and the price seems reasonable. I am very new to this SSD business so I barely even know what SATA 3 is supposed to be, http://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-ssd-for-gaming/.

If you scroll down you can see a list with performance values.

And what about my harddisk that's constantly being used near values of 100% ?

I upgraded my PC not TOO long ago so it would kinda suck if I had to do so again, is there something I can do about this CPU problem that won't cost me a bunch of money?

[Big Boom Boom]

Performance value is meaningless, gaming and software doesn't load as much. The difference between SATA III SSD and NVMe SSD would be minimal. Your article refer to Samsung Evo 850 SSD as the best SSD for this reason. This is the most popular choice, well rounded performance and durability backed by Samsung generous 5 years warranty. It's a SATA III SSD.

My guess is you have a non k i5 and a GTX 970. You can't do anything about it. You can try some bclk Overclocking but it depends on mobo and bios.

[Koroskun]

I might have misunderstood you just now but like I said in the post, I have an i5 4460 and a gtx 770, just making sure u caught that, no offense or anything.

I was also told that GHz aren't important.

[Big Boom Boom]

Sorry I skimmed through your OP. As I have said, unfortunately there's nothing you can do to up the performance you're getting with the exception of upgrading. The GTX 770 however is fairly weak for the game, you are going to both CPU bottlenecked in city and GPU bottlenecked most of the time. Make sure to turn off Laptop Low Power mode in the setting (or whatever the name is), turn off High end mode, turn on Auto Frame Optimiser, use Croping and Upscaling to improve your performance.

Pop in everywhere and microstutter in cities is kind of a given, due to the nature of MMO and the game engine. However, if your hardware is strong enough there would be no "freeze", that's different. I have played the game at various hardware configuration since March last year, a very big noticeable difference in term of CPU. The game utilise multithread but not well, it pretty much still depends on single core performance for most of it. In other words, there's a noticeable difference jumping from i5 to i7 on same clock, but more core more thread is still wasted as the game rely on high single core performance.

[Koroskun]

Erm, my FPS in the game is very good and I'm only ever freezing in cities, and I mean SERIOUS freezing (fps in cities ~40)... That's my one and only problem, i can run and move around but different areas make me freeze for quite some time

Oh, and this is on the MAX settings too. Dunno how good it is but that's how it is.

[Big Boom Boom]

Yes, you are using upscaling, your screenshot in the profile showed me that. No, your FPS will be fluctuating wildly in cities unless it's a ghost town. As said, there WILL be microstutter regardless of hardware, if however you are frozen for quite sometimes it's because your CPU and MAYBE the HDD can't keep up. If that's the case, buy the Evo 850 SSD. Don't waste your money on NVMe SSD, your budget is nowhere near enough for a comfortable size one.

[Koroskun]

Upscaling? What's that supposed to be?

Disk usage is 100% when in cities (when it's loading, duh)
and maybe somewhere about 80% normally.
This is why I cannot let go of the fact that I think this is the problem.

[Big Boom Boom]

Upscaling refer to the game rendering at a lower resolution, and then upscale that to the resolution you input in the setting (900p). Looking at the screenshot I believe it's rendering at 720p.

As already said, upgrade to a SATA III SSD not an NVMe SSD. It makes no sense for gaming and for your budget.

[Koroskun]

Ah, yes. I totally understand your point with the SATA 3 and I'm already considering it, however I do not see why we're talking about my gpu as to MY knowledge it only affects my FPS and I think that this game is VERY beatiful and runs really well. I do not mind slightly lower framerate at games like these.

I hope that getting this SSD will help me anyways. Thanks for your help.

I just checked and I do not have Upscaling enabled.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Why are u looking at disk usage % who cares, it always will be high when it's in-use, that's kind of the point. If the game is having issues it's usually not because of the Disk Drive used.

You have poor CPU and GPU and only 8GB RAM, that's your issue here.

[Koroskun]

I highly doubt the point is for the disk to be at 100%. And why? It should be obvious.

I don't see how my GPU has anything to do with freezing issues myself.
I understand that my CPU sucks, yeah. Thanks for repeating it.

I do not see how a game like this can screw me over this hard.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

"Game freezes alot in cities"

This is a combination of your CPU, GPU and RAM; that's why it occurs.

As for your HDD, scan for errors using CHKDSK /F /R in an Admin Command Prompt.
Then do a full Disk Defrag with a decent defrag program, like Piriform Defraggler.
Folks don't defrag their HDDs, that's why poor performance.

[Koroskun]

Isn't this a process that takes alot of time to do?

[Big Boom Boom]

Your i5-4460 only turbo boost up to 3.4Ghz. Unfortunately that's not nearly enough for a game that is very single threaded centric with some multi threaded. Your CPU is lacking on both front, it has no HT and its single thread is quite weak. The game also likely benefits from higher speed RAM as it's quite memory bandwidth hungry so dual channel and higher frequency may yield better result.

Of course, you THINK you have 40 fps in cities. FPS in cities fluctuate wildly even on good hardware, very wildly.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=935973074
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=939193555
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=939194698

As a steam player, I highly doubt you ever seen the horrible crowded Calpheon. Steam run its own channel until next month or so, when you will be dropped into the real world. Welcome to the game with 100,000 concurrent players, 95,000 of which is AFK training strength or processing.