Does XPS 13 9310 i7-1185G7 support PCIe Gen 4 SSD speeds?

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The specification manual says PCIe3X4 -- so no, it's not going to give you full speed on a PCIe4 drive.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/xps-13-9310-laptop/docs

Noted, but if the systems supported PCIe 4 at full speed, it would be a selling point and advertised.

There's very little difference in the 9310 vs. the 9300 beyond the CPU - and no evidence the mainboard was redesigned for PCIe 4.  More likely, that will await the 10 nm Intel CPUs to come toward the end of 2021 and early 2022 (if in fact Dell sticks with replaceable SSDs at that point;  the 2-in-1 systems have gone to soldered in SSDs the way Apple has been designing systems for some time now).

While you can try a PCIe 4 drive, if you do -- report the speed back to the forum.  I think you'll find it's no faster than a PCIe 3 drive.

It says the SSD that comes with it is PCIe gen 3.

It doesn't say anything about user upgrades.

Apparently the Samsung 980 in the XPS 9310 actually does get 6300/2700 whereas the included drive gets just 2700/2700. So it seems the 9310 gets gen 4 read but not write.

Update, someone pointed out that tweaktown got 6700/2700 because that's what the 250GB 980 Pro gets normally.

I will make another post here and on r/Dell once my 1TB 980 Pro arrives. Hoping I get the full 7000/5000.

Specs: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/980pro/

Update, someone pointed out that tweaktown got 6700/2700 because that's what the 250GB 980 Pro gets normally.

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But I think Samsung has had some controller-magic for a couple of SSD generations now ... especially on the Pro versions. For example, I thought 3000/1500 r/w was "normal high speed" for a NVMe SSD.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Aurora-R6-Hard-Lockup-and-crash-while-gaming-SOLVED/m-p/5504121/highlight/true#M6097

Your ss above is already twice as fast as the OEM-Samsung in my Aurora-R6.

Your quest is righteous, but I think the real-world benefit is small. Like slightly faster ram-speeds, it's hard to perceive since it's already crazy-fast.

My 9300 came with a nice Toshiba XG6 NVMe SSD, but not sure what is in the 9310.

It looks like some users who swapped out their drives are finding that they achieve PCIe4 speeds.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/m041if/xps_13_9310_with_samsung_980_pro_pcie_gen_4_ssd/

My XPS 13 9310 came with a Samsung PM9A1 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD (OEM version of the 980 Pro)

For whatever reason I'm not seeing the Gen 4 speeds as some others do with the 980 Pro

I'm wondering what the reason might be?

I know it is using a standard Windows driver. I couldn't find a specific Samsung driver.

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@ejn63 wrote:

The specification manual says PCIe3X4 -- so no, it's not going to give you full speed on a PCIe4 drive.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/xps-13-9310-laptop/docs

 

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In the docs you linked (https://dl.dell.com/content/manual17005717-xps-13-9310-setup-and-specifications.pdf?language=en-us&ps=true), it actuall says:

Table 5. Chipset
PCIe bus | Up to PCIe Gen 4.0 (Storage)

even though later in Table 11 of Storage section it says "PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe, up to 32 Gbps".

CPU-Z also reports PCIe 3.0, so it's super confusing. Maybe it only has 4.0 for storage?

But according to this article https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-1165G7-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.467756.0.html "The processor also supports PCI-Express 4.0 (4 lanes)",

And when I look-up the cpu on ark.intel https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/208921/intel-core-i71165g7-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-70-ghz-with-ipu.html, I get the answer I was looking for!

Microprocessor PCIe Revision | Gen 4
Chipset / PCH PCIe Revision | Gen 3

So apparently there is both! The peripherals connected via chipset, including thunderbolt, support max PCIe 3.0, while there is a direct line to processor, which is usually used by 1) GPU, 2) primary SSD.

AWESOME!

Did you reach the PCIe 4.0 speeds?