RTX 5070Ti PCIe Link Speed Inconsistent on MSI Pro X870-P WiFi (Drops to PCIe 3.0 / 4.0 on cold boots)

[tomuliuka15c002e5]

Hi everyone, I’m running into a persistent PCIe link speed negotiation issue with my current setup and wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing something similar or has found a workaround.

My Hardware:

Motherboard: MSI PRO X870-P WIFI

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7800X3D

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

BIOS Version: Agesa 1.3.0.1b Patch A (7E47v1A92)

A The Issue: On cold boots, the PCIe link speed between the motherboard and the RTX 5070 Ti inconsistently negotiates. Sometimes it hits PCIe 5.0 as intended, but frequently it drops down to PCIe 4.0 or even PCIe 3.0. Interestingly, the system remains stable and game performance is fine, but it refuses to consistently lock at PCIe 5.0.

What I've tried / checked:

- Above 4G Decoding and Resizable BAR are enabled in BIOS.

- EXPO is enabled and stable.

- Disabled the iGPU (which completely fixed initial cold-boot stutters/lag, a known quirk, but did not fix the PCIe speed fluctuation).

- Forced settings are currently on Auto, as trying to force Gen 5 manually results in a black screen/no post since the link negotiation fails at startup.

The GPU is definitely seated properly since it does successfully hit PCIe 5.0 sometimes—if it were physically misaligned or poorly fitted, it wouldn't be able to negotiate that speed at all. As for setting it manually to Gen 4, I'm a bit hesitant because of the cold-boot instability. If the system/microcode still struggles during the initial training phase, forcing Gen 4 might just trigger a black screen or no-post if it drops down even further during boot. Right now, leaving it on Auto lets it boot up stably (usually landing on Gen 3).

It seems like an early platform AGESA / microcode issue regarding PCIe training with the new 50-series cards on X870. Has anyone found a BIOS setting tweak or a stable workaround for this, or are we just waiting for a newer AGESA update (like 1.3.0.2 or later) from MSI? Thanks in advance for any insights!

P.S. I posted this problem on Reddit and there are many users with the same problem, not only me.
Post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/1w5c7xo/rtx_5070ti_pcie_link_speed_inconsistent_on_msi

 

[Jarous1]

A fairly common behavior... Unfortunately, I'm having the same problem... And for about a year now, no one has been able to tell me how to fix it permanently, let alone have AMD or MSI FINALLY FIX IT
Some of the advice here on this forum is to enable “Spread Spectrum” in the BIOS or slightly reduce the VSOC power (or rather, don't leave this setting on “auto”), for example. But none of that guarantees a permanent booting to "Gen 5"...

EDIT: Manually setting it to Gen 5 doesn't help me either; too often the computer boots into Gen 4, and sometimes even Gen 3. However, even without that VSOC setting I’ve had instances where it booted into Gen 1.1. But in that case, the computer would randomly freeze every few moments, the sound would crackle, until—after several tens of seconds—it ended with a complete system crash and a restart...

 

[tomuliuka15c002e5]

Yeah, on Reddit people also have same problem. Massively changing their shitty MSI mainboards to other brands ant no problems at all

 

[giuseppe.michiel12bd02ab]

First of all, I suggest to Clear CMOS via shorting the jumper onboard or pressing (if available) the button behind the I/O Panel. Then disable EXPO. I had a similar issue with PCIE Graphic Card mistakenly assigned to x1 instead of x4. No further issues after the CMOS reset and EXPO disabled.

 

[Jarous1]

That's all well and good, but I didn't pay extra for high-speed memory just to run it at a pathetic base frequency with EXPO/XMP disabled... I'm really not going to accept that!
This problem has been going on for at least a year, yet no one has even officially commented on it. Not MSI, and not AMD. Because it looks like there might be a problem with the bus or its controller... And there’s still no fix from either of them.

 

[giuseppe.michiel12bd02ab]

That's all well and good, but I didn't pay extra for high-speed memory just to run it at a pathetic base frequency with EXPO/XMP disabled... I'm really not going to accept that!
This problem has been going on for at least a year, yet no one has even officially commented on it. Not MSI, and not AMD. And there’s still no fix from either of them.

The new BIOS version permits to change the memory profile (in which the DRAM DDR is boosted) directly to the SPD specs of your memory sticks. For this reason, even with EXPO disable my DRAM speed is at 6000 MT.

 

[Jarous1]

I'm not really sure how to configure this... If I disable EXPO/XMP, so how and where does the BIOS load the preset profiles from the memory modules?

 

[giuseppe.michiel12bd02ab]

I'm not really sure how to configure this... If I disable EXPO/XMP, so how and where does the BIOS load the preset profiles from the memory modules?

According your UEFI Interface, you should find OC (Overclocking) panel in Advanced Mode (if you are in the UEFI EZ Mode): once you entered in the OC settings, search for DRAM Settings, then Optimized Performances Profiles, then change from Auto to your internal memory stick chip name displayed. Below, the MT/s speed is also available but I have not experienced any change in this option. Perhaps I would try the CMOS reset before to see whether the PCIE setup returns to normal.

 

[Jarous1]

I tried setting something like that up, but the memory was still running at its original 4800 MHz speed. I did see some “optimized for Hynix” settings there, but those are hardcoded to only 6000 MHz. The memory modules are officially rated at 6400 MHz, though...
So I switched it back to “XMP on” and I’m not going to mess with it anymore… I really don’t have the patience to deal with something that’s supposed to work automatically, without any user touch