Performance - M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Storage Performance

M.2 PCIe SSD Storage Performance

M.2 brings small form factor add-in SSDs to our PC platform at blazing fast speeds. There is an abbreviation for that, NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor). It is not just that though, SATA3 has not been amongst us for that long, but the SSDs evolved in a very fast manner, making SATA3 already a bottleneck for current generation SSDs as SATA3 SSDs end at roughly 550 MB/sec in terms of read/write performance. 

  
Original M.2 PCI-E SSDs are merely small form factor SSDs that communicate over your PCI Express lanes, providing 10 Gbps of bandwidth, eliminating SATA3 bottlenecks. The cool thing with recent motherboards is the increased bandwidth to 32 Gbps by using a x4 PCIe link. 

Be advised though, with multiple cards or full SATA port occupation, you will run out of PCIe lanes. If that happens you will revert to x2 PCIe Gen 3.0 configuration. Most motherboards will allow you to switch to x4 however as a BIOS setting and at the cost of disabling a SATA3 port or PCIe-Slot.

Above: PCIe Gen 3 x2 lane configuration performance

Above: PCIe Gen 3 x4 lane configuration performance

M.2 PCI-E links directly to your PCI-E lanes and, as such, is an interface with much more available bandwidth. You can expect performance in the upper 2,500 MB/sec range with these products.