The boards must primarily have compatible connectors for PCIe 4.0 and the appropriate clock generator, and optionally these are the appropriate switches and re-drivers, which are especially suitable for boards that want to spread the PCIe 4.0 interface between slots other than the main PCIe x16 and M.2.
Asus, we didn’t get any details about integrating PCIe 4.0 support on Z490 boards, unlike other major branded board manufacturers. So while MSI and Gigabyte commonly use IDT6V4 1821BN generators on all models, Asus relies on the PRO Clock II, which only got on two of its boards. In addition, a number of MSI and Gigabyte boards also have re-drivers (P13EQX16), but Asus only offers them on one model, and MSI, whose all boards also offer PCIe 4.0 switches (P13DBS16), is the best, and Gigabyte uses them only on some models (P13DBS). The following table shows all this:
In the coming months, we expect the arrival of new AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, which will certainly offer the PCIe 4.0 interface, and the SSD offer for this interface will also expand. In this case, Asus is at a clear disadvantage compared to others, although it can be expected that when Intel’s desktop platform actually makes PCIe 4.0 support available, Asus will offer new versions of its boards or even other new models.
