Embodiments herein describe techniques for separating data transmitted between I/O functions in an integrated component and a host into separate data paths. In one embodiment, data packets are transmitted using a direct data path that bypasses a switch in the integrated component. In contrast, configuration packets (e.g., hot-swap, hot-add, hot-remove data, some types of descriptors, etc.) are transmitted to the switch which then forwards the configuration packets to their destination. The direct path for the data packets does not rely on switch connectivity (and its accompanying latency) to transport bandwidth sensitive traffic between the host and the I/O functions, and instead avoids (e.g., bypasses) the bandwidth, resource, store/forward, and latency properties of the switch. Meanwhile, the software compatibility attributes, such as hot plug attributes (which are not latency or bandwidth sensitive), continue to be supported by using the switch to provide a configuration data path.