When installing an SSD in our PC, as long as it is compatible with the motherboard, it is advisable to opt for a M.2 format to use the PCIe interfacesince it offers a higher transfer speed than the traditional SATA III. While it is true that there are a large number of SSDs on the market that use this interface despite their speed limitation, the number of options in M.2 SSDs is decreasing.
With almost 14 years on the market, the standard PCIe Gen3 is coming to an end in the units M.2 SSD storage. According to various sources, most SSD manufacturers have plans to stop manufacturing PCIe 3.0 compatible drives or have already done so.
Goodbye to M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSDs
The successor to PCIe 3.0, PCIe 4.0 hit the market in 2017 offering a much higher transfer speed, going from 8 GT/s to 16 GT/s. For now, it seems that the manufacturer Klevv is still committed to manufacturing M.2 SSD units compatible with the PCIe 3.0 interface, since it recently launched a new model that we talked about in HardZone.
Since PCIe 4.0 is the most used standard in most motherboards on the market, it makes no sense to continue betting on such an old standard. Furthermore, the price difference In M.2 SSD units between both standards it is very small, and will always have a higher output. In fact, most, if not all, motherboard manufacturers only offer support for PCIe Gen 4 and up.
As the implementation of PCIe 5.0 reaches the highest-end motherboards, it has been available in servers for a longer time, continuing to allocate resources to such an old standard that offers much lower speeds than both PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 It’s absurd.
Manufacturers stopping making PCIe 3.0 SSDs means that, in the coming months, the price of these drives will be significantly reduced to get rid of stock. Users whose board only offers support for PCIe 3.o will be able to purchase M.2 SSDs with support for PCIe 4.0although the transfer speed will be that offered by the PCIe 3.0 standard which, as we mentioned above, is 8 GT/s.
Is it worth upgrading the motherboard to one compatible with PCIe 4.0?
Here it depends what our needs are. If we use the PC to perform office tasks and enjoy the odd game without high graphical pretensions, it is really not worth changing the motherboard for one that is compatible with PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 to use faster M.2 SSD drives.
| Version | Encoding | Gigatransfers | Speed x1 | Speed x2 | Speed x4 | Speed x8 | Speed x16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0/1.1 | 8b/10b | 2.5GT/s | 250MB/s | 500MB/s | 1 GB/s | 2 GB/s | 4GB/s |
| 2.0/2.1 | 8b/10b | 5GT/s | 500MB/s | 985MB/s | 2 GB/s | 4GB/s | 8 GB/s |
| 3.0/3.1 | 128b/130b | 8GT/s | 985MB/s | 1.97GB/s | 3.94GB/s | 7.88GB/s | 15.76GB/s |
| 4.0 | 128b/130b | 16GT/s | 1.97GB/s | 3.94GB/s | 7.88GB/s | 15.76GB/s | 31.52GB/s |
| 5.0 | 128b/130b | 32GT/s | 3.94GB/s | 7.88GB/s | 15.76GB/s | 31.52GB/s | 62.04 GB/s |
| 6.0 | 242b/256b | 64GT/s | 7.88GB/s | 15,125GB/s | 31.52GB/s | 63.04 GB/s | 121.08 GB/s |
| 7.0 (in development) | 242b/256b | 128 GTS | 15,125GB/s | 31.52GB/s | 60.50GB/s | 121.00 GB/s | 242.00 GB/s |
But, if the main use we make is to play or work with rendering projects, you should already be using an M.2 SSD compatible with PCIe 4.0 or even higher if your pocket allows it, since the speed difference is multiplied by 2 , going from 16 GT/s of PCIe 4.0 to 32 GT/s of PCIe 5.0. When PCIe 6.0 hits the market it will offer a speed of 64 GT/s.
