samsung 980 pro on Zbook Studio G8

[TomNgo]

Hi,

I just changed my ssd pm981a  to samsung 980 pro 1Tb on Zbook Studio G8.

but I checked , it only runs at Gen3 not Gen4 as shown in the spec.

What I need to do to make it run as max speed Gen4 ?

Thank you

[banhien]

@TomNgo 

Its specs says it supports PCIe® Gen 3 x 4 NVMe™ M.2 SSD:

                https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c07585278.pdf

No available Maintenance and Service Guide:

               https://support.hp.com/au-en/product/hp-zbook-studio-15.6-inch-g8-mobile-workstation-pc/2100677682/m...

Regards.

[TzortzisG · Accepted solution]

Hello TomNgo.

Page 10 of your second specs HP datasheet lists both Gen 3.0 and Gen 4.0 storage drives compatible with this model:

256 GB PCIeGen4(NVMe™) TLC Solid State Drive**

256 GB PCIeGen4(NVMe™) TLC Self Encrypting (SED)OPAL2Solid State Drive**

512GB PCIeGen4(NVMe™) TLC Solid State Drive**

512GB PCIeGen4(NVMe™) TLC Self Encrypting (SED)OPAL2Solid State Drive**

1TB PCIeGen4(NVMe™) TLC Solid State Drive**

2TB PCIeGen4(NVMe™) TLC Solid State Drive*

Your laptop's CPU has the following specs according to Intel:

Intel® Core™ i7-11850H Processor 

24M Cache, up to 4.80 GHz 

Expansion Options
Intel® Thunderbolt™ 4 Yes

Microprocessor PCIe Revision Gen 4

Chipset / PCH PCIe Revision Gen 3

PCI Express Configurations ‡ Up to 1x16+1x4, 2x8+1x4, 1x8+3x4

Max # of PCI Express Lanes 20

And this is the schematic by Intel for Tiger Lake H CPUS:

So your CPU has 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes on the CPU and another 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes for connecting through the chipset. The 20 CPU connected PCIe 4.0 lanes can be used in these ways (as seen above in the Intel specs):

1x16+1x4 (discrete GPU and one gen4 SSD), 2x8+1x4 (discrete GPU and one gen4 SSD), 1x8+3x4 (discrete GPU and 3 gen4 SSDs). As you can see, your CPU is able to support either one Gen4 SSD or three of them! And in fact HP actually has Gen 4.0 storage drives as parts for this laptop (pages 21-23).

And now time for the surreal part: Apparently HP decided to connect the SSD through the PCH, thus making it a Gen3.0 SSD slot. That's why on page 10 (under the Gen 4.0 drives) it says: DRIVE CONTROLLERS M.2 Storage Bay (PCIe NVMe)PCIe® Gen3 x4. Since PCIe 4.0 slots and devices are backwards compatible, anything you connect to this slot will automatically downgrade to a PCIe Gen 3.0 device. There's nothing you can do to make the 980 run as a Gen4.0 disk on this system. HP chose to grace only the Power Zbook G8 with a Gen 4.0 slot and left the Studio and the Fury G8s with Gen 3.0 slots.

"The price conscious ZBook Power G8 receives the PCIe Gen4 upgrade with the other models remain Gen3... 

[TomNgo]

Thank you so much

so I waste of money on this 980 pro lolzzz

[TzortzisG]

It's happened to the best of us 🙂

[banhien]

@TomNgo  @TzortzisG 

Yes you can use PCIe 4 storage devices, that does not mean it would run PCIe 4 speed.

Hop this makes sense.

Regards