Overall, according to Micron's numbers, its new 9650 is 40% faster in write speeds than PCIe Gen 5 SSDs, 67% faster in random read speeds, and 22% faster in random write speeds. Take this info with a pinch of salt, as Micron did not share the exact PCIe 5.0 SSD model it is referring to, but most outgoing PCIe 5.0 SSD write speeds sit around the 10GB/s to 13GB/s range.
Surprisingly, power consumption has not increased to match the extra performance the 9650 offers over PCIe 5.0 drives. Micron's 9650 is rated at up to 25 watts, the same as the most power-hungry enterprise PCIe 5.0 SSDs consume today. But if you want to compare consumer PCIe 5.0 SSDs, which generally top out at 12 to 15 watts, the 9650 consumes up to 67% more power than those drives.
What has changed is the cooling requirements for Micron's new drive. The 9650 is Micron's first SSD to support both air and liquid cooling, with liquid cooling being supported specifically on the E1.S version. The introduction of OEM liquid cooling is already happening with PCIe 5.0 SSDs in the datacenter world to help tame the heat generated by these high-power-consuming drives. It may seem silly to have to liquid-cool a device that only draws 25 watts, but cooling becomes complicated quickly when you have multiple 25-watt drives sitting side by side in a server rack. Solidigm was the first manufacturer to release a liquid-cooled enterprise SSD.
We can expect drives like the 9650 to be prioritized for mass production due to the demands of AI servers. LLMs require a lot of high-speed storage to move data quickly where it's needed. And just as GPUs do, AI servers will take advantage of as much high-speed storage as modern PCIe standards allow. Also, don't expect Micron's announcement to be any indication of a consumer PCIe 6.0 coming out anytime soon; not only is the AI race consuming NAND flash at an extraordinary rate , but consumer platforms have not yet adopted PCIe 6.0 (and won't until 2030), making a consumer variant completely useless.
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Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/worlds-first-pcie-6-0-ssd-enters-mass-production-with-28gb-s-speeds-micron-9650-series-ssds-support-air-and-liquid-cooling#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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