Are PCIe 5.0 SSDs worth it in 2026?

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Source STH

SSD PCIe 4.0 (Gen4)

• ~7 000 MB/s in reading
• Very mature
• Excellent value for money
• Controlled heating

SSD PCIe 5.0 (Gen5)

• 12,000 to 14,000+ MB/s
• Technology still evolving
• More expensive
• Significant heating

On paper, the Gen5 is almost twice as fast. But gaming doesn't work "on paper". So let's analyze all of this together!

This is the most important part. In 2026:

• Games already load ultra fast on Gen4
• The differences between Gen4 and Gen5 are often invisible
• Sometimes we talk about 0.5 to 1 second on certain loads
• Even with DirectStorage enabled, the gains remain marginal.

If your goal is:

• Competitive FPS
• 1440p / 4K
• gaming fluidity

In this case the PCIe 5.0 SSD changes absolutely nothing Your graphics card and CPU do 95% of the work.

The Gen5 becomes interesting if you do :

• Video editing 6K / 8K
• Massive file transfers
• Heavy workstation
• Very large compilation

In these cases, bandwidth can really help. But for a classic gaming PC or even a streaming + gaming setup? An excellent Gen4 remains largely sufficient.

The first Gen5 SSDs had a major flaw: they were heating up significantly.

Result, there are large heatsinks with sometimes even integrated fans and a risk of throttling if poorly ventilated.

In 2026, the controllers are more optimized, but the Gen5 remains more thermally demanding than the Gen4. If your case is compact or poorly ventilated, it can be a problem.

The price difference between PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 SSDs narrowed in 2026 , it's true. We are no longer dealing with absurd differences as at the launch. But at equivalent capacity, the Gen5 remains more expensive.

The problem, the real gain in gaming use does not follow the price increase You pay for theoretical bandwidth that games hardly exploit.

In a performance-oriented setup, every euro counts. And today, the money invested in a better graphics card, a more robust CPU or even 32 GB of RAM will have a much more visible impact than going from 7,000 MB/s to 12,000 MB/s on an SSD .

In other words: the performance/price ratio remains largely in favor of PCIe 4.0.

Many buy PCIe 5.0 to "be quiet in the future". The idea is understandable. But one must remain lucid.

Games still make very poor use of PCIe 4.0 . DirectStorage is making progress, yes, but we are still far from a scenario where Gen5 becomes essential.

And above all, the storage evolution cycle is fast. PCIe 6.0 is already beginning to emerge on the horizon If you change your configuration every 4 to 6 years, there is a good chance that you will move directly to another generation before really exploiting the potential of Gen5.

Buying Gen5 only to "anticipate" is not necessarily a profitable strategy in 2026.

If you are building a PC mainly for gaming, the SSD PCIe 5.0 does not change your experience . Loading times are already excellent in Gen4, and FPS does not depend on storage.

On the other hand, if you work with very large volumes of data, do heavy video editing, or regularly transfer massive files, the Gen5 can start to make sense .

For everything else, an excellent PCIe 4.0 SSD remains today the most coherent, rational, and balanced choice in terms of budget.