Gaming
FROM LAG TO LIGHTNING
Iwona Zalewska, Regional Director for UK & Ireland, DRAM Business
Manager, EMEA Region, Kingston Technology discusses how gamers can unlock transformational power by upgrading to a PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD.
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any gamers look for solutions to help them gain a performance edge. Tis could be through upgrading their graphics card or
CPU, using a high refresh monitor or updating their drivers, but one of the most effective approaches is by improving their data storage technology. Solid state drives (SSDs) are being constantly
improved as NAND and controller technology evolve. Te latest advancement in storage, PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs, can make a dramatic difference, compared to older forms of storage, in terms of faster read/write speeds and a vastly better user experience. In addition, Gen5 has backward compatibility with other PCIe slots, ensuring users have flexibility when it comes to upgrading. Tere is little comparison between PCIe NVMe SSDs
and technologies such as SATA SSDs or traditional HDDs. Everything is faster, from booting the operating system to launching games. But there is another important advantage, because NVMe is designed to optimise flash memory, and this allows parallel I/O operations, markedly reducing latency, and providing gamers with a noticeably smoother performance. PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)
is an expansion connectivity standard which provides a means for the CPU to communicate with other components, including graphics cards and storage devices. Each iteration of PCIe marks a new generation,
28 | November/December 2025
of which PCIe Gen5 is the most recent. Gen4 SSDs offer a maximum bandwidth of 16GT/s; however, Gen5 SSDs reach bandwidths of 32GT/s. Tese drives can also potentially provide read speeds 2.5 times faster and write speeds 5 times faster than Gen4 SSDs. Tere is no doubt that by using PCIe Gen5, gamers can achieve the fastest SSD performance in a PC.
Unpacking the different PCIe generations When considering upgrading to PCIe Gen5, it is important to understand the improvements in bandwidth and speed that are offered by each of the generations. A quick comparison of the maximum bandwidth,
maximum read speed and the applications for which they are best suitable, shows what they each offer: • PCIe Gen 3: Tis delivers a maximum bandwidth of 16GB/s across 16 lanes, with up to 3,500MB/s sequential read speeds on NVMe SSDs. Tis generation is best for general computing needs.
• PCIe Gen 4: Tis generation doubled the bandwidth of Gen 3 to 32GB/s across 16 lanes, enabling SSDs to reach sequential read speeds of over 7,000MB/s. It is ideal for users looking for support for PC and console gaming.
• PCIe Gen 5: Tis further doubles the bandwidth, offering up to 64GB/s across 16 lanes. Gen 5 SSDs are the gold standard when it comes to achieving
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