Nextorage's upcoming PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSDs have been demoed and showcase a huge improvement versus the current Gen4 storage devices.
Nextorage's PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD Offers A 35% Improvement In Transfer Rates Versus Gen4 SSDs
Back in September, Nextorage showcased its upcoming PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSDs during the Tokyo Game Show. The manufacturer is based in Japan and offers its SSDs for both consumer systems such as PCs and also the Sony PlayStation 5 console. Since the consoles can only take advantage of Gen4 SSDs, their Gen5 SSDs are currently only targeted at premium desktop PCs.
The Nextorage PCIe Gen 5.0 NVMe M.2 showcased during the event will utilize a standard M.2 form factor but will come in two options, a standard one with a copper film or a high-end variant with a massive heatsink. We have seen manufacturers eyeing both active and passive cooling for the Gen 5.0 SSDs and Nextorage seems to have chosen the latter. The heatsink shown features several fins that extend from the base plate and can take up a good chunk of space within the PC. Nextorage is still in the process of evaluating the final heatsink design so the one pictured at TGS may not be the final look.
As for specs, the Nextorage PCIe Gen 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD features sequential read speeds of up to 10,000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 9,500 MB/s. The storage device will initially ship in 2 TB & 1 TB flavors. The 1 TB variant will run at slightly slower 9,500 Read and 8,500 Write speeds. 176-layer NAND flash is used which will explain why the speeds aren't really going for the 10 GB/s+ mark as detailed here.
For comparison, the Samsung 990 Pro which is the current fastest Gen4 SSD, has a Read speed of up to 7450 MB/s and a Write speed of 6900 MB/s. The Nextorage PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD offers up to 35% faster Read and 48% faster Write speeds and this isn't even the fastest SSD using the Gen5 standard yet!
Shimizu_OC managed to visit the Nextorage HQ where the company offered a brief demo of their upcoming product. We can see that the PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD produced 10 GB/s Read and 10 GB/s Write speeds. An interesting demo was made which showed that the NAND Flash reached up to 59 Degrees Celcius when the heatsink was equipped but in an accidental run without the heatsink, the temperatures instantly shot up to 77C and continued to increase. One reason why the sample hit such a high temperature might be due to the fact that this is still an early sample with no thermal throttling function enabled.
They told me that no thermal throttling function on their sample due to do some tuning and testing. Here are more detailed pic of their sample. Looks like 2TB🤔 pic.twitter.com/VcjZ64iOWF
— 清水 貴裕 (@Shimizu_OC) November 26, 2022
Nextorage PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD With Heatsink (Image Credits: Shimizu_OC):
Nextorage PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD Without Heatsink (Image Credits: Shimizu_OC):
This shows that NAND Flash can get really hot on Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSDs and will definitely require some good cooling solutions. That is why we have seen several motherboard makers going with some extra chonky M.2 heatsink designs on their recent X670 and Z790 motherboards. Nextorage did showcase a very big heatsink design at TGS 2022 but Shimizu_OC states that the new heatsink features a completely new design and is much smaller than that one while offering better cooling.
No… completely new design.
I can only say “ smaller than that one”
I guess performance is better— 清水 貴裕 (@Shimizu_OC) November 26, 2022
Several SSD manufacturers are getting ready to launch their next-gen products by CES 2023 so stay tuned for more information.
