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A PCIe SSD will improve your gaming and productivity, all the while decreasing your wait times for file transfers. Every game stored in this SSD will load faster, and no video will lag. However, the only downside to these SSDs is that they are still quite expensive in 2022, despite the size of video games increasing every day.
Before buying a new PCIe 4.0 SSD, you need to make sure that your PC can take full advantage of it. CPUs such as AMD Ryzen 3000-5000 series and Intel's 11th gen have support for PCIe 4.0.
PCIe 4.0 SSDs will work on older platforms as well, thanks to backward compatibility. If the SSD is installed on a PCIe 3.0 interface, the drive will operate at PCIe 3.0 speeds only.
Most NVME SSDs use the M.2 form factor and plug in directly to the motherboard in the PCIe slot, so before buying an M.2 SSD, make sure you have an empty slot.
Here are the best PCIe4 SSDs for Gaming in 2022:
- Corsair MP600 Pro XT
- Kingston KC3000 NVMe SSD
- Seagate FireCuda 530
- WD Black SN850
- Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus
Best PCIe 4.0 SSDs for gaming today
1) Corsair MP600 Pro XT
The Corsair MP600 Pro XT is one of the fastest SSDs on the market today, which also supports liquid cooling. There is nothing to complain about with this SSD, other than its price, something which is a common complaint in SSDs today.
2) Kingston KC3000 NVMe SSD
Kingston KC3000 is a PCIe 4.0 SSD with a 5-year warranty and high-endurance ratings, giving you the security you need to buy a storage device that will not let you down.
It has a huge storage spectrum ranging from 512GB all the way to 4TB. The only downside is that it does not support 256-bit hardware encryption for even more security.
3) Seagate FireCuda 530
With a rare cool-running PCIe 4.0 SSD, you will not need a heatsink for the FireCuda. The Seagate SSD comes with three years of Rescue Data Recovery Services, which will protect your data from unexpected data loss, something that no other competitor offers.
4) WD Black SN850
This is a top-tier choice for gamers and enthusiasts, as it offers quality storage. WD offers a great software called WD Dashboard, which includes analysis tools, a firmware updater, and RGB lighting controls for the heatsink model.
With the fastest read and write speeds, this sleek-looking SSD is one to go for all-black PCs.
5) Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus
No other competitor offers upto 8 TB of PCIe 4.0 storage at $2000. The capacity it offers is unrivaled, and it seems to remain this way for the next few years. The company also offers a 5-year warranty.
With high capacity comes a few cons: it thermal-throttles under heavy loads for long periods of time and is also quite inefficient, as it has high idle power consumption.
Gen4 SSDs have revolutionized the state of drives today. Gen4 drives have almost double the speeds over Gen3 SSDs. The fastest Gen3 SSD, Samsung 970 EVO Plus, has maximum speeds of 3500 MB/s, and Gen4 SSDs have speeds of over 7000 MB/s. This results in hardly any loading screens while gaming, to the point where reading tips & tricks on loading screens will become a problem.
Installing Windows on these SSDs will help your PC boot in a few seconds and installing applications will be lightning fast as well.
Gen4 drives go up to temperatures of 77 Celcius, though overheating should not be a problem for a well-ventilated case. Most manufacturers sell heatsinks to attach to the drive, which helps with performance-throttling and keep the SSD cool for long periods of time.
Unsurprisingly, these drives come at a bit of a cost, given the tremendous performance boost. But prices will go down eventually with the development of new technology.
