madmaxmk9

EVGATech_DanielC
Hello Mrkwhlr2, 
At this time it seems as tho we don't have any plans towards releasing or developing a PCI-E Gen 4 Supported Bios Update at this time. 
 

Good to know, so I can sell my Z490 Dark and never buy an EVGA product again, for the rest of my life, MSI, Asus, Gigabyte ... etc all support PCI-E Gen 4 they have already released bios updates. what does evga decide to do?  this forum seemed a bit empty, now i know why. cheers from Germany

jonkrmr
You all need to remember that the board needs to be designed for PCIe 4.0 from the get go.
 
All Z490 boards will accept a 11th gen CPU with a simple micro code BIOS update so the board can properly recognize the new chip.
 
An 11th gen CPU in a Z490 board will automatically operate its' PCIe bus at 3.0 if the board is not fully PCIe 4.0 compliant.
 
A Z490 board needs to have the proper PCIe 4.0 trace design, frequency clock generators and PCIe switches along with PCIe 4.0 compliant PCIe slots and M.2 slot (primary) in order to let a 11th gen CPU operate its' PCIe bus at 4.0.
 
If the Z490 board was not initially designed with his forward compatibility thinking, no BIOS update will let it work properly at PCIe 4.0.
 
Most of the mid range and up Z490 boards are supposedly PCIe 4.0 compliant but that remains to be seen if they do not have the proper trace design, frequency clock generators, switches and slots for PCIe 4.0.
 
My MSI MEG Z490 Unify (like the Ace and Godlike) Have these frequency clock generators, switches and compliant slots, but no mention from MSI currently if they are PCIe 4.0 compliant.
 
Bottom line is the performance difference between PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 is negligible in real world scenarios. Graphics wise, maybe 2% improvement with current gen graphics technology and more on M.2 performance but even gen 3 x4 is so fast you do not notice any difference in speed in real world scenarios going to gen 4 x4. Only benchmarks would show the increase.