PCIe 5.0 vs PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs: What's the difference?

With PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs increasing in availability, it's worth pondering whether the jump from Gen 4 to Gen 5 is worth it. Depending on an individual's PC usage, the benefits of Gen 5 M.2 SSD could be night and day.

For a majority of gamers and content creators, PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs are still perfectly suitable for their needs. PCIe 5.0 drives are available for those who want to speed things up a notch, however. Compared to PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs, the current Gen 5 counterparts (such as our MP700 and MP700 PRO SSDs) may yield up to 2.5x faster read speeds and up to 5x faster write speeds. This is a huge benefit for individuals who frequently deal with larger files such as 4K and 8K videos and photos. Not only will importing and exporting files be much faster, but there would also be an impact on providing a more seamless editing experience on an active timeline.

As for gaming, you'll see impacts where games will load faster, especially with games that are compatible with Microsoft DirectStorage 1.2 (DirectX12 GPU with Shader Model 6.0 support required). When it's time for a large update or game file validation, the process will be much quicker as well, so you may get back into the game ASAP.

Outside content creators and gamers, PCIe 5.0 SSDs are highly suited for even more demanding workloads and applications that require quick data transfer speeds. High-performance computing, workstations, and data centers would be some examples. For systems which are heavily outfitted with PCIe components (GPUs, capture cards, network cards, sound cards, etc.), PCIe lanes may be limited. PCIe 5.0 is notably beneficial in these scenarios, as it achieves high speeds at half the PCIe lane usage of PCIe 4.0. Refer to the table below.

We'll continue to see the capabilities of PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs develop over the next few years. For now, installing a PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD into your system is the way to go for attaining the fastest speeds possible and future proofing.