AMD introduced the world to PCIe Gen 4 last year when they unveiled the Zen 2 lineup of CPUs. However, while it’s great that PCIe Gen 4 was now reaching the masses, a lot of questions were thrown around. Now, after announcing the Ryzen 4000 lineup for mobile devices (read: laptops), it’s becoming more clear why AMD is pushing the technology so hard. At a recent briefing, I asked AMD about the advantages of bringing PCIe Gen 4 to mid-range GPUs like the Radeon RX 5600 XT.
We admit that PCIe Gen 4 is a forward-looking tech. The idea is to be ready for next-gen in terms of raw performance. A handful of games perform better at certain resolutions in gen 4. Apart from performance, PCIe gen 4 has an advantage in terms of power. Each lane has double the bandwidth of Gen 3.
In essence, a PCIe gen 4 8x lane is roughly the same bandwidth as a 16x lane in gen 3. In mobile form factors and OEM systems, it’s about finding the balance between performance, power, and design. Having fewer lanes also reduces the cost.
Yes, you won’t see raw performance improvements today, but there are other advantages…
In essence, mobile graphics are an important factor that needs to be addressed. While we see great leaps in desktop graphics, laptops have often been the much ignored little brother. With AMD’s push for Gen 4, it seems like that’s the primary market that is being targeted, as of right now. We know that Intel is preparing to reveal the upcoming Tiger Lake CPUs soon, which are being touted as making a breakthrough in integrated laptop graphics performance. It’ll be interesting to see how this all becomes tangible, as right now it’s more of a buzzword for the casual gamer/PC enthusiast.
We’ve reviewed a fair share of gaming laptops, and one of the main things that annoy us about them is the price when compared to their desktop counterparts. The move to 7nm and newer technologies like PCIe 4.0 should help in improving the situation on that front.
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