The first PCIe 5.0 SSDs for consumers are face-meltingly fast

Next-gen desktops are packing some pretty impressive capabilities, but perhaps the most exciting for the widest slice of users is the upgrade to the fifth generation of PCIe connections. That’ll mean expanded data bandwidth for high-end peripherals, most notably graphics cards and SSDs. While PCIe 5.0 connections have been available for a few months, since the launched of Intel’s 12th-gen “Alder Lake” processors, we’ve yet to see consumer storage drives that can take advantage of it. That’s about to change thanks to Apacer, which just announced the first consumer PCIe 5.0 SSDs during Computex 2022.

The smaller memory specialist has announced the Apacer AS2280F5 and Zadak TWSG5, two series of 5th-gen PCIe SSDs in the M.2 format. Both feature read speeds at up to a torrid 13000MB/s, with write speeds only slightly lower at 12000MB/s. (That’s a little less than double the speed of the fastest M.2 gen 4 drives on the market.) Both drives are backwards compatible with gen 4 connections and come with beefy aluminum heat sinks, which might cause clearance issues if your motherboard’s M.2 slots are in an awkward spot. Each has a 5-year warranty.

The announcement was spotted by WCCFTech, but unfortunately it doesn’t come with prices or release dates. Or information about read/write IOPS and endurance estimates, unfortunately. Intel’s 12th-gen processor series comes with PCIe 5.0 compatibility, as do the motherboards that support them (though actually featuring those ports for PCIe and M.2 peripherals isn’t a guarantee). AMD’s upcoming AM5 platform and Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, scheduled for release this fall, will support PCIe 5.0 as well, and AMD is working closely with partners to ensure PCIe 5.0 SSDs launch alongside the new platform. So though Apacer’s announcement may have paced the first out of the gate, expect to see many more face-meltingly drives revealed soon. While you wait, be sure to check out our roundup of the best SSDs.