PCIe 5.0 SSDs with 14GB/s speeds are coming, and more importantly, with lower power consumption too

pcgamer.com:

We all love to see faster SSDs. Price aside, the problem with PCIe 5.0 SSDs is they get too hot. That means they need slabs of motherboard metal to cool them, or require creative cooling solutions that work around the relatively tiny M.2 2280 form factor.

SSD manufacturers seem to be keeping checks on SSD power consumption and temperatures high in their minds. Silicon Motion is set to compete with Phison with its SM2508 controller, and revealed some details at the 2023 Flash Memory Summit (via Anandtech). 

Other than offering excellent performance potential, the real highlight of the SM2508 is its reported power consumption of just 3.5W. The controller is the most power-hungry component of an NVMe SSD, and the hottest. When SSDs with the SM2508 controller roll out in the coming months, the hope is they won't require extravagant cooling solutions. Fingers crossed.

PCIe 5.0 drives are effectively impossible to install in notebooks. The idea that an SSD can approach the TDP of some notebook CPUs is ludicrous. Hopefully SM2508 equipped drives will be mobile-friendly, likely with firmware and components that bring PCIe 5.0 SSD power consumption to just a few watts, and not 10 or more.

Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.

The SM2508 delivers great performance too, with up to 14GB/s read and write speeds. Those are the headline numbers SSD vendors will thrust in front of you, but just as important are the random read and write IOPS numbers, with up to 2.5 million and 2.4 million operations per second respectively.

The SM2508 SSD controller features eight NAND