Engadget: NVMe SSDs Outpace SATA, but SATA Remains Practical for Some PCs

According to Engadget, SATA is the older standard. Its SATA III specification has a theoretical maximum of 600 MB/s, although fast consumer drives generally run around 500 to 560 MB/s. NVMe, short for Non-Volatile Memory Express, was built specifically for solid-state storage and normally communicates over PCIe. That design helps explain why even an older PCIe Gen3 drive can achieve speeds of about 3,500 MB/s, while current Gen5 drives are closing in on 15,000 MB/s.

The report says SATA SSDs typically use AHCI, a protocol developed for an older generation of storage, while NVMe was designed for the parallel workloads that flash storage enables and communicates through PCIe. Not all motherboards wire all M.2 slots the same. Most high-performance M.2 NVMe SSDs use four PCIe lanes, written as x4. Another M.2 slot on the same motherboard may provide only two lanes, written as x2, or run at an older PCIe generation such as Gen4. A slower slot can become the bottleneck. A drive might boast huge sequential speeds, but if the slot only provides two lanes instead of four, part of the advertised performance remains out of reach.

Engadget also notes confusion around M.2, the thin stick-shaped form factor that has become synonymous with NVMe. M.2 describes only the form factor, while NVMe is the connection type. SATA-based M.2 drives exist alongside NVMe models. Before purchasing one, buyers should verify their laptop or motherboard specifications, because finding out the difference after unpacking can make for a frustrating afternoon.

If a PC supports it, NVMe is the more sensible primary drive option, according to the report. Extra bandwidth helps most with large file transfers, video editing or other storage-intensive tasks, and PCIe Gen3 hardware already provides several times the sequential bandwidth of SATA. Gen4 and Gen5 drives can go much faster, though the fastest Gen5 models can also run hot enough to make cooling another consideration. Crucial, for example, says its T700 Gen5 SSD needs a heatsink for optimal performance. The best PS5 SSDs, for a system that supports Gen4, require a heatsink as well.

The difference is less pronounced under normal use. The huge sequential-speed number on an SSD box does not mean Windows will boot, browsers will open or most games will load several times faster. Moving from a SATA SSD to NVMe will not make the rest of a computer scale with the maximum performance number. Games will not offer doubled frame rates because storage got quicker.

The price comparison is not as neat, either. SATA can still be the lower-cost option, but the difference will vary based on capacity, model and whatever SSD pricing is doing that week. Sandisk does not state a fixed price gap between SATA and NVMe. If a compatible NVMe drive is around the same price, there is no reason to miss out on that additional performance.

For older PCs, secondary storage or desktops that have already used up their M.2 slots, SATA remains a viable option. Microsoft lists an NVMe SSD as a Windows 11 requirement for storing and running games that use DirectStorage.