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I have tried searching in Sysinfo of Windows, no NVMe version found.

Using HWiNFO64 and CPUID CPU-Z to read hardware info, no NVMe version found.

CrystalDiskInfo shows NVMe version but it's for the SSD not motherboard.

Looked up motherboard manual but the manual of motherboard RPL Compass_RTX is so hard to find, and checked the specs of chipset Intel HM770 (Raptor Lake-S PCH), Intel doesn't want to show me the info.

After all of these, I'm here to wait for someone to clue me in.

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    If you're wondering about upgrading the SSD in an Acer Predator laptop, any Gen 4 NVMe SSD will do. Check reviews. Gen 3 will also work, but the price difference between the two is almost zero nowadays, from what I've seen.
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Nov 23 at 13:10
  • I'm just curious to know the NVMe capability, it's not bothering about upgrading SSD, since keeping an eye on PCIe version is generally enough.
    – Leconas
    Commented Nov 23 at 13:53
  • 1
    If you're curious about technical details, there's this article on AnandTech: NVMe 1.4 Specification Published: Further Optimizing Performance and Reliability.
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Nov 23 at 16:30
  • Sure, thank you.
    – Leconas
    Commented Nov 24 at 2:37

2 Answers 2

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The motherboard or chipset doesn't have a "NVMe version" since NVMe mainly defines just the commands, not the physical link – and the commands are generated by your OS, not by the motherboard – so the NVMe version or feature support depends entirely on the OS.

(Sure, the motherboard's firmware has to speak some NVMe when booting the OS, but it only needs the most basic 1.0 for that purpose.)

For example, the standard Windows NVMe driver has some NVMe 2.x support – though most of that is server-only features which have no impact on regular M.2 SSDs on a regular PC. Intel's RST/VMD driver might support different features.

NVMe SSDs use a standard PCI-Express connection for the physical link, so the connection speed depends on the PCIe version supported by the M.2 slot (and by the SSD itself); not so much on the NVMe version. For example, "Gen3 SSD" really refers to PCIe Gen3 (currently there is no such thing as NVMe version 3).

You should be able to see the effective PCI Express link speed (PCIe version and lane count) for each device in HWINFO or other tools. Your HM770 is compatible with PCI Express Gen4 in general, although whether it is available for the M.2 slots will depend on the specific motherboard.

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  • Curiously, where to check NVMe driver in Windows? I'm keen to know the NVMe capability.
    – Leconas
    Commented Nov 23 at 13:55
  • Device Manager devmgmt.msc, find your NVMe device, open its properties dialog, click "Driver Details".
    – grawity
    Commented Nov 23 at 16:12
  • I found Windows NVMe driver version 10.0.22621.4391, which is the default. I googled it but couldn't find specs. Should I install the vendor version?
    – Leconas
    Commented Nov 24 at 2:53
  • If it's the latest version of stornvme, then its capabilities should be as described in the Microsoft document. I don't think many vendors have their own versions in the first place – the whole idea of protocols like NVMe/SCSI/SATA is that it wouldn't be needed. Intel chipsets with RST/VMD are the only exception, as then the chipset itself gets a little involved with NVMe, but that's only if you want it to do RAID, otherwise as far as I know the Windows default driver is fine.
    – grawity
    Commented Nov 24 at 8:03
  • Sure, thank you.
    – Leconas
    Commented Nov 24 at 12:24
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The motherboard simply presents PCIe lanes in an M.2 socket.

It is the SSD which implements the NVMe protocol.

There are usually four PCIe lanes per M.2 socket, and, depending on the motherboard and CPU, they will be PCIe version 3.0, 4.0, or 5.0. Sometimes there will be one version 5 socket and the others will be version 4.

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