We first heard and saw PCIe Gen5 SSDs in some form of action, back when AMD officially launched its Ryzen 7000 Series back in August last year. Now, the next-gen super-ultra fast storage medium has already gone on sale in Japan
The consumer-ready PCIe Gen5 SSD, announced back in October 2022 and also based on the NVMe 2.0 specifications, was released under the Japanese electronics brand, CFD Gaming. Further details of the storage medium shows that it is based on the PS5026-E26 controller, made by Phison, while also incorporating Micron’s 3D TLC NAND flash.
In terms of performance, PCIe Gen5 is expected to run at average sequential read and write speeds of 10GB/s and beyond. Having said that, and based on what we saw on the demonstration floor during the inaugural launch of AMD’s Zen 4 CPUs, it was either less than stellar or just outright refused to work as intended. At the time, it was clear that there were still some hurdles to be cleared, not so much on AMD’s part, but on the part of these SSD manufacturers that clearly wish to make the transition into the next step.
From the looks of it, CFD Gaming’s PCIe Gen5 SSD is currently available in 2TB capacities at the current moment, but there are also 1TB and 4TB variations from the brand, although those don’t seem to be available at this current moment.
Moving on, the 2TB CFD Gaming PCIe Gen5 SSD retails at around 49980 Yen (~RM1632). Mind you, that price is inclusive of Japanese tax, meaning that the actual SRP of the component would be around 45450 Yen (~RM1484). That is around the same price as a Samsung 990 Pro, which is a PCIe Gen4 SSD with average sequential read and write speeds of 7GB/s.
The CFD Gaming PCIe Gen5 SSD also comes with its own original heatsink that clearly contains a mini-fan, installed into the middle, hinting at the potential amount of heat that the medium can and will generate when put to the task.
Beyond that, there is still no word as for when the mass production and availability of PCIe Gen5 SSDs for the rest of the world will be. Fingers crossed, we’ll be seeing it by this year, with no potential delays for its rollout.
(Source: AKIBA-PC, Videocardz)
