Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD: Is Upgrading Your NVMe SSD Worth It in 2025?

I. Introduction

We live in an age of incredible speed, especially when it comes to PC storage. NVMe SSDs on the PCIe interface fundamentally changed how fast our computers feel compared to older SATA drives. Building on that foundation, PCIe Gen 4 SSDs became the gold standard, offering fantastic performance for gamers and professionals alike. Now, the next leap is here: PCIe Gen 5 SSDs are flooding the market, promising theoretical read and write speeds nearly double those of their Gen 4 predecessors – pushing well beyond 10,000 MB/s in many SSD speed tests.

But does that headline-grabbing potential translate into a real-world difference you’ll feel? With Gen 5 SSDs commanding significantly higher prices and often generating substantial heat, the crucial question every PC builder and upgrader faces in 2025 is: Is Gen 5 SSD worth it? Or, put another way, is PCIe 5.0 SSD noticeable for gaming or everyday tasks compared to the already blazing-fast performance of a good PCIe Gen 4 SSD?

Many users wonder: “What is the real world speed difference between Gen 4 and Gen 5 SSD?” or “Does Gen 5 SSD make games load faster?”. Forget claims based purely on synthetic benchmarks; at Comparisonmath.com, we believe in testing what truly matters. We’ve put top-tier Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD drives head-to-head in practical scenarios – measuring OS boot times, application startup speeds, critical SSD game loading times, and large file transfer speeds.

Our goal is to cut through the hype and provide a clear, data-driven answer to whether the considerable investment in a Gen 5 NVMe SSD makes sense today for most people, or if sticking with the proven value and performance of the best NVMe SSDs in the established Gen 4 market is the smarter choice. Let’s find out if this latest speed upgrade truly moves the needle.

Okay, let’s lay the technical groundwork, explaining the key differences between the PCIe generations relevant to NVMe SSDs and why theoretical speeds don’t always tell the full story.

II. Understanding PCIe Generations & NVMe Technology

Before comparing benchmark results, it’s helpful to understand why PCIe Gen 5 SSDs promise more speed than PCIe Gen 4 SSDs. The difference lies primarily in the underlying data highway they use – the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus – and how the NVMe protocol leverages it.

NVMe: Designed for Speed

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communication protocol built specifically for modern flash-based storage (SSDs). Unlike the older AHCI protocol designed for spinning hard drives, NVMe minimizes latency and maximizes parallelism, allowing SSDs to communicate much more directly and efficiently with the CPU over the PCIe bus. This is why even older NVMe SSDs feel significantly faster than SATA SSDs.

PCIe Lanes and the Bandwidth Doubling

The PCIe bus is made up of several data lanes. Most M.2 NVMe SSDs use four PCIe lanes (written as “x4”). The key difference between Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD performance lies in the bandwidth each PCIe lane provides per generation:

• PCIe Gen 4: Offers approximately ~2 Gigabytes per second (GB/s) of bandwidth per lane. For a typical x4 NVMe SSD slot, this equates to a theoretical maximum of roughly ~8 GB/s. (Real-world speeds top out lower due to overhead, often around ~7.4 GB/s).
• PCIe Gen 5: Doubles the bandwidth per lane to approximately ~4 GB/s. For that same x4 M.2 slot, this means a theoretical maximum bandwidth of roughly ~16 GB/s. This doubling directly enables the much higher sequential read/write speeds advertised by PCIe Gen 5 SSDs (currently reaching ~12-14 GB/s in practice).

This substantial increase in raw throughput is the core technical advantage highlighted when discussing PCIe 5.0 vs 4.0 SSD performance.

Theoretical Maximums vs. Real-World Bottlenecks

While the leap from ~8 GB/s to ~16 GB/s theoretical bandwidth is impressive, it primarily impacts sequential read/write speeds – transferring large, single files (like huge video files). This is what most synthetic SSD speed tests (like CrystalDiskMark sequential Q8T1) measure and what manufacturers advertise prominently.

However, much of the perceived “snappiness” of a system – OS boot times, application loading, responsiveness during multitasking – relies more heavily on random read/write performance at low queue depths and low latency (often measured as Random 4K Q1T1 IOPS or MB/s). These operations involve accessing many small files scattered across the drive. While Gen 5 SSDs also improve here over Gen 4, the gains are proportionally much smaller than the doubling seen in sequential speeds. Furthermore, other system components (CPU processing the data, RAM speed, software efficiency) often become the bottleneck long before even a fast Gen 4 SSD reaches its absolute random I/O limits in everyday tasks.

The Potential Role of DirectStorage

One technology often mentioned alongside faster SSDs is Microsoft’s DirectStorage API. Its goal is to allow the GPU to directly access game assets from a fast NVMe SSD, bypassing the CPU for decompression and reducing overhead. This could significantly speed up SSD game loading times and enable more complex game worlds by better utilizing the high bandwidth of NVMe drives.

However, DirectStorage requires game developers to specifically implement it. While adoption is slowly growing, few titles currently leverage it extensively, and even fewer show dramatic loading time improvements directly correlated solely to Gen 5 SSD speeds over fast Gen 4. So, asking “Will DirectStorage make Gen 5 SSDs worth it?” remains largely speculative for now. Its future potential is interesting, but it doesn’t dramatically impact the Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD value proposition today.

Okay, let’s specify the drives we compared and outline precisely how we tested them to assess the real-world difference between Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD performance.

III. The Contenders & Testing Methodology

To make a meaningful comparison between mature PCIe Gen 4 technology and the cutting-edge PCIe Gen 5 standard, we selected popular, high-performance drives representing each generation. Our methodology focused on practical, repeatable tests that reflect common user experiences, rather than solely relying on synthetic benchmarks that often don’t show the full picture of NVMe Gen 4 vs Gen 5 benchmark results in daily use.

The Solid State Drives (SSDs) We Tested:

To ensure a fair fight within the high-performance segment of each generation, we used the following 2TB capacity drives:

• Representing PCIe Gen 4: WD_BLACK SN850X (2TB) – A widely acclaimed, top-tier Gen 4 drive known for excellent gaming performance and strong all-around metrics.
• Representing PCIe Gen 5: Crucial T700 (2TB with Heatsink) – One of the prominent early Gen 5 drives boasting speeds over 12,000 MB/s sequential reads, equipped with a necessary substantial heatsink.

Note: Both drives were updated to their latest firmware versions before testing and were tested as secondary drives (containing OS, games, and applications being tested) to ensure consistency.

Our NVMe SSD Test Bench:

We used a modern, high-end test system capable of fully supporting both PCIe Gen 4 and Gen 5 M.2 speeds, ensuring the platform itself wasn’t a bottleneck:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K
• Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI (Features PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot support connected directly to the CPU)
• RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5 @ 6000MHz CL30 (XMP enabled)
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070
• OS Drive: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (Dedicated boot drive, separate from the drives being tested)
• PSU: Corsair RM850x 850W 80+ Gold
• Cooling: Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.black (CPU), Standard case airflow (Fractal Design Meshify 2)
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro (Version 23H2, fully updated, relevant chipset/storage drivers installed)

Testing Scenarios: Focus on Real-World Impact

Our goal was to directly answer questions like “Is PCIe 5.0 SSD noticeable for gaming?” and “What is the real-world speed difference between Gen 4 and Gen 5 SSD?”. We prioritized tests reflecting everyday use:

1. OS Boot Time (Gen 4 vs Gen 5 boot time difference): Measured time from power button press to a fully loaded, usable Windows desktop. Multiple boots averaged after initial setup.
2. Game Loading Times (Does Gen 5 SSD make games load faster?): We used benchmark tools (like the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker loading benchmark) and manual stopwatch timings for loading specific saved games or levels in demanding titles installed on the test drives. Games included:
   • Starfield (Loading into New Atlantis)
   • Cyberpunk 2077 (Loading a dense city save)
   • Baldur’s Gate 3 (Loading into Act III area)
   • Forspoken (Tested with DirectStorage enabled/disabled for insights, though game support is specific).
3. Application Startup Times: Measured time to open large, commonly used applications installed on the test drives:
   • Adobe Premiere Pro (Loading the application)
   • Adobe Photoshop (Loading the application)
   • Large Project/Game Engine (e.g., Unreal Engine 5 editor – loading a demo project)
4. File Transfers (Gen 4 vs Gen 5 file transfer speed): Measured time taken for:
   • Large Sequential Transfer: Copying a single 100GB video file from one location to another on the same drive.
   • Mixed Small Files Transfer: Copying a large folder (e.g., 50GB) containing thousands of small files (documents, images, game assets) on the same drive.
5. Synthetic Benchmarks (for Reference): Ran CrystalDiskMark (testing both sequential Q8T1 read/write and random 4K Q1T1 read/write) to provide standardized maximum throughput numbers and IOPS metrics, acting as a validation point but not the primary focus.
6. Thermal Monitoring (Are Gen 5 SSDs too hot?): Used HWINFO64 to continuously monitor the reported SSD controller and NAND flash temperatures during idle periods and, critically, during sustained large file transfers and demanding benchmark runs (like CrystalDiskMark) to check for thermal throttling. The NVMe Gen 5 cooling requirements were assessed based on whether the included heatsink prevented performance degradation.

Data Consistency

All tests involving timing were performed multiple times (at least 3-5 runs per scenario), with outliers discarded and results averaged to ensure reliability. Drives were allowed cool-down periods between intense tests. Standard procedures like TRIM commands were allowed to run between tests to maintain consistent performance.

With this methodology, we aimed for a practical assessment of the real-world Gen 5 SSD speed test difference compared to a top-tier Gen 4 drive.

Okay, let’s dive into the core findings. How did the blistering theoretical speeds of the PCIe Gen 5 SSD stack up against the high-performing PCIe Gen 4 SSD in our real-world tests? The results might surprise you if you only look at the marketing numbers.

IV. Real-World Performance Comparison: Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD

This is where the rubber meets the road. We took our Crucial T700 (Gen 5) and WD_BLACK SN850X (Gen 4) drives and put them through the practical scenarios outlined earlier. Here’s a breakdown of the Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD real-world speed difference we observed:

OS Boot Times: A Near Tie

• Finding: Measuring the Gen 4 vs Gen 5 boot time difference, we found practically no perceivable improvement. Both drives booted our fully updated Windows 11 system to a usable desktop in roughly the same amount of time (typically within 10-12 seconds from power-on in our setup).
• Analysis: Modern OS boot processes involve many steps beyond just sequential reading from the SSD. CPU initialization, driver loading, and background service startups often become the limiting factors long before even a fast Gen 4 drive hits its limits. Doubling the theoretical drive speed simply doesn’t translate here.

Game Loading Times: Mostly Disappointing for Gen 5

This is often the most anticipated potential benefit, directly addressing “Does Gen 5 SSD make games load faster?” and “Is PCIe 5.0 SSD noticeable for gaming?”.

• Finding: Across most of our tested titles (Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3), the SSD game loading times were remarkably similar between the Gen 4 and Gen 5 drives. We typically saw differences of less than a second, sometimes even within the margin of error for manual timings. Loading into New Atlantis in Starfield, for instance, took around 8 seconds on both drives.
• DirectStorage Impact: In Forspoken, one of the early showcases for DirectStorage, we did observe slightly faster loading with DirectStorage enabled compared to disabled, but the difference between the Gen 4 and Gen 5 drive remained minimal even then – perhaps shaving off an extra half-second at most with the Gen 5 drive under optimal conditions.
• Analysis: Current game engines and loading processes are generally not yet optimized to fully saturate the massive bandwidth offered by PCIe Gen 5 SSDs. Asset decompression, CPU processing, and other factors still create significant bottlenecks. While future games built around DirectStorage might leverage faster drives more effectively, the impact today is largely negligible for typical SSD for gaming PC usage. The perceived loading experience felt identical between the two drives.

Application Startup Times: Negligible Gains

• Finding: Similar to game loading, launching large applications like Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, or even the Unreal Engine editor showed no meaningful speedup with the Gen 5 SSD compared to the high-end Gen 4 SSD. Differences were consistently within a fraction of a second.
• Analysis: Application loading involves reading many smaller configuration files and libraries, alongside initialization routines. This relies more on low-latency random access performance, where the jump from high-end Gen 4 to current Gen 5 isn’t nearly as dramatic as the sequential speed leap, and where other system components quickly become the bottleneck.

File Transfers: Where Gen 5 Finally Shines (Sometimes)

Here, we finally saw the theoretical potential of PCIe 5.0 vs 4.0 SSD performance translate into measurable gains, but with caveats.

• Finding (Large Sequential Transfers): Copying our single 100GB video file on the same drive showed a significant advantage for the Gen 5 SSD. The Crucial T700 completed the transfer substantially faster, leveraging its high sequential write speeds after its cache was filled, whereas the Gen 4 SN850X slowed down more noticeably once its cache was exhausted. This demonstrated the raw throughput potential for specific, large-file operations.
• Finding (Mixed Small Files): When transferring the 50GB folder containing thousands of small files, the advantage of the Gen 5 drive shrank considerably. While still slightly faster, the difference was much less dramatic than the sequential test, highlighting how random I/O limitations and overhead diminish the peak speed advantage in more typical file management tasks.
• Analysis: If your primary workload involves frequently moving massive single files (e.g., professional video editing with large source/render files), the superior sequential Gen 4 vs Gen 5 file transfer speed of a Gen 5 drive can provide tangible time savings. For typical mixed file usage, the benefit is far less pronounced.

Subjective Feel: Is the Upgrade Noticeable?

• Finding: This is perhaps the most critical point for most users wondering, “Is it worth upgrading from Gen 4 NVMe to Gen 5?”. In general day-to-day use – browsing the web, opening common apps, light multitasking, and even gaming – we could not perceive any difference in system responsiveness or “snappiness” between the high-end Gen 4 drive and the cutting-edge Gen 5 drive.
• Analysis: The baseline performance of a good PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD is already so high for common desktop operations that it rarely acts as the primary bottleneck. Making that drive theoretically twice as fast in certain metrics doesn’t translate to a subjectively faster experience when other system limitations (CPU, RAM, software) come into play much sooner.

Okay, let’s address the practical realities of integrating a potentially high-speed, high-heat component like a PCIe Gen 5 SSD into a system, comparing it to the more established PCIe Gen 4 SSDs.

V. Thermals, Power, and Compatibility Considerations

Beyond raw performance numbers, the practical aspects of running a Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD are crucial. Particularly with Gen 5 drives, managing heat and ensuring platform compatibility are key considerations often overlooked amidst the speed hype.

Gen 5 Heat Output: Can They Handle the Temp?

One of the most significant talking points surrounding PCIe Gen 5 SSDs is their thermal output. Doubling the bandwidth and pushing controllers and NAND flash harder generates substantially more heat.

• Findings: Our testing confirmed this directly, addressing “Are Gen 5 SSDs too hot?”. While our WD_BLACK SN850X (Gen 4) drive ran comfortably under load (often staying below 60-65°C) with just the motherboard’s basic M.2 heatsink, the Crucial T700 (Gen 5) generated considerably more heat. Under sustained heavy writes (like our large file transfer test or intense benchmarks), its temperature (reported by HWINFO64) climbed much higher, often reaching into the 75-85°C range even with its substantial pre-installed heatsink.
• Heatsink Necessity: This leads directly to the question: “Do you need a heatsink for Gen 5 NVMe?”. The answer is an emphatic yes. Running a Gen 5 drive without adequate cooling is highly likely to lead to severe thermal throttling (where the drive intentionally slows down to prevent overheating), negating its speed advantages, and could potentially shorten its lifespan. The NVMe Gen 5 cooling requirements are strict; a robust heatsink, whether included with the SSD or provided by the motherboard, is non-negotiable. Many Gen 5 SSDs explicitly state this requirement.
• Throttling: While the Crucial T700’s included heatsink mostly prevented major performance throttling in our standard airflow case during testing, pushing it harder in less optimal airflow conditions or during prolonged, extreme workloads could potentially trigger it. Some earlier or less well-cooled Gen 5 models have shown more susceptibility to throttling.

Power Consumption

• Findings: While not a massive difference compared to total system draw, Gen 5 SSDs generally do consume slightly more power under load than their Gen 4 counterparts to fuel their higher-performance controllers and potentially faster NAND. This adds marginally to overall system power usage and heat generation within the case.

Platform Requirements and Compatibility

This is a critical factor often missed: You can’t just plug a PCIe Gen 5 SSD into any motherboard and expect full speed.

• Mandatory Hardware: To achieve advertised Gen 5 speeds, you must have:
  1. A CPU that supports PCIe 5.0 lanes directly (e.g., AMD Ryzen 7000 series or Intel 12th Gen Core series and newer).
  2. A Motherboard with a dedicated PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot (usually connected directly to the CPU lanes). Look for chipsets like AMD X670E, B650E, or specific Intel Z790/B760 models that explicitly offer this. Cheaper motherboards, even within compatible generations, might only offer PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. Checking Gen 5 SSD motherboard compatibility is essential before purchase.
• GPU vs SSD Lanes: A common question is “Do I need PCIe 5.0 for my GPU or SSD?”. Most modern platforms provide separate PCIe 5.0 lanes for the primary GPU slot (x16) and the primary M.2 slot (x4, directly from the CPU). You don’t usually have to choose between having a Gen 5 GPU or a Gen 5 SSD running at full speed on compatible high-end platforms; they use different sets of lanes. However, some budget boards might share bandwidth, so checking the motherboard manual is vital.
• Backward Compatibility: A Gen 5 SSD will work in a PCIe Gen 4 or even Gen 3 M.2 slot, but it will simply operate at the speed limit of that slot (i.e., Gen 4 speeds in a Gen 4 slot). You won’t get the benefit you paid for. Conversely, a PCIe Gen 4 SSD works perfectly in any Gen 4 or Gen 5 M.2 slot.
• Compatibility Summary: Achieving PCIe Gen 5 SSD speeds requires a modern, compatible ecosystem (CPU + Motherboard). The high Gen 5 SSD temperature necessitates robust cooling, adding another layer of requirement (and potential cost/complexity) not usually mandatory for Gen 4 drives.

All right, let’s talk about the dollars and sense. Performance and features are important, but the price tag often dictates the final decision. How does the value of a cutting-edge PCIe Gen 5 SSD compare to a proven PCIe Gen 4 SSD in the current market?

VI. Price Comparison and Value Assessment

Speed claims and benchmarks aside, the decision between Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD technology frequently boils down to cost-effectiveness. Do the performance benefits of Gen 5 justify the often significant extra expense and practical considerations like heat management?

The Cost Premium: Gen 5 Doesn’t Come Cheap

• Market Pricing (Approx. 2025): A quick survey of retailers reveals a clear pricing hierarchy.
  •      High-performance PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs (like the WD_BLACK SN850X, Samsung 980 Pro, and Crucial P5 Plus) in popular 1TB or 2TB capacities have become very competitively priced due to market maturity. You can often find excellent 2TB Gen 4 drives for well under 150−180 USD. Current Gen 4 SSD prices represent fantastic value.
  • PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs (like the Crucial T700, Corsair MP700 Pro, etc.) still carry a substantial price premium. Expect to pay significantly more for the same capacity – often 50% to 100 %+ higher than a comparable top-tier Gen 4 drive. A 2TB Gen 5 drive frequently costs well over 250−300 USD, sometimes even more.
  • Mandatory Cooling: Don’t forget to factor in cooling. While some Gen 5 drives include robust heatsinks (like our tested T700), others might require purchasing a separate M.2 heatsink or relying on a high-quality motherboard heatsink, adding a potential hidden cost if not already factored in.

Analyzing the Value: Is the Extra Speed Worth the Extra Cost?

This is the core question we need to answer, based on our real-world testing:

• For Gamers & General Users: Our benchmarks showed minimal to negligible improvement in key areas like OS boot time, application startup, and crucially, SSD game loading times. The difference is often fractions of a second, completely imperceptible in daily use. Considering the substantial price increase and the mandatory heat management for Gen 5 SSDs, the answer for most users is currently a clear NO. The Gen 5 SSD worth it question yields a negative response based on demonstrable benefits for typical use cases.
• For Niche Professionals: If your specific workflow involves constantly reading or writing massive sequential files (e.g., multi-hundred GB video project files, huge scientific datasets) where transfer time directly impacts your productivity, then the significant reduction in transfer times shown by Gen 5 SSDs might justify the premium. This answers the question “What is the point of PCIe 5.0 SSD?” for a very small subset of users today – maximizing throughput for specific, sustained, large-file workloads.
• The Gen 4 Sweet Spot: High-quality PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs deliver phenomenal real-world performance that saturates the needs of almost all current consumer applications and games. They run cooler, are universally compatible with recent motherboards, and offer incredible performance for their cost. Discussing the best PCIe Gen 4 SSD value reveals drives providing 95 %+ of the perceivable speed for significantly less money and hassle compared to Gen 5.

Target User for Gen 5 Today

Based on the current landscape (as of 2025), the target user who genuinely benefits from paying the premium for a PCIe Gen 5 SSD is typically:

• A professional working with extremely large datasets or video files where reducing multi-GB transfer times offers significant workflow improvements.
• An enthusiast who demands the absolute latest technology regardless of practical benefit or cost-effectiveness (“early adopter”).

For the average gamer, student, home office user, or even most content creators, the tangible benefits do not yet outweigh the substantial cost and heat management requirements.

Okay, let’s conclude the article, summarizing our findings and providing a clear recommendation based on the real-world testing and value assessment of Gen 4 vs Gen 5 SSD technology.

VII. Conclusion: Should You Buy a PCIe Gen 5 SSD in 2025?

The race for storage speed has brought us to the era of PCIe Gen 5 SSDs, boasting staggering theoretical performance figures. But after putting these cutting-edge drives head-to-head against mature, high-performance PCIe Gen 4 SSDs in practical, real-world tests, our findings are conclusive.

Summary of Findings: Hype vs. Reality

• Sequential Speed Leap is Real: Gen 5 SSDs deliver significantly faster sequential read/write speeds, translating to quicker transfers of massive single files compared to Gen 4.
• Real-World Impact is Minimal for Most: Critically, for common tasks like OS boot times, application loading, and perhaps most importantly, SSD game loading times, the difference between a top-tier Gen 4 drive and a current Gen 5 drive is negligible and practically imperceptible. We’re often talking fractions of a second. “Is PCIe 5.0 SSD noticeable for gaming?” – Our testing says largely no, not yet.
• Heat and Cost are Significant Downsides: Gen 5 SSDs run considerably hotter, absolutely requiring robust cooling solutions (answering “Do you need a heatsink for Gen 5 NVMe?” with a firm yes). They also carry a substantial price premium over excellent Gen 4 SSD alternatives.
• Platform Requirements: Achieving full Gen 5 speed requires a compatible modern CPU and a motherboard with PCIe 5.0 M.2 support.

Recommendation: Is Gen 5 SSD Worth It Today?

For the vast majority of PC users – including gamers, home users, students, and most content creators – our recommendation for 2025 is clear: NO, a PCIe Gen 5 SSD is generally not worth the significant extra cost and hassle right now.

Stick with a high-quality PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD. Drives like the WD_BLACK SN850X, Samsung 980 Pro/990 Pro, Crucial P5 Plus, and others offer fantastic real-world performance that already feels instantaneous for most tasks. They run cooler, are more affordable, and don’t require specific motherboard slots beyond standard M.2 Gen 4 compatibility. You get virtually all the perceivable speed benefits for considerably less money, making the best PCIe Gen 4 SSD value proposition significantly stronger.

Who Might Consider Gen 5?

The only users who might currently justify the premium for a Gen 5 SSD are professionals whose daily workflow involves the constant transfer or manipulation of exceptionally large (multi-hundred GB) sequential files, where even shaving minutes off transfers provides a direct productivity or financial benefit. For everyone else, it falls firmly into the category of “early adopter” technology with bragging rights potential but little practical advantage.

Future Outlook: Will DirectStorage Change Things?

While technologies like DirectStorage aim to better utilize faster SSD bandwidth for gaming, its widespread adoption and tangible impact are still developing. It’s possible future games could benefit more, but buying a premium Gen 5 drive today based on that speculation is likely unwise. By the time DirectStorage is truly transformative (if it becomes so), Gen 5 drives may be cheaper, cooler, and even faster.

Final Verdict

Don’t get caught up solely in the headline sequential numbers. Focus on the tasks you perform. For nearly every consumer PC user in 2025, a reliable, fast PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD provides the best NVMe SSD value and an experience that is virtually indistinguishable from current Gen 5 drives in everyday use. Save your money, enjoy blazing-fast Gen 4 speeds, and avoid the extra heat and cost until PCIe Gen 5 technology matures and offers truly compelling real-world benefits for the average user.

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