What is the actual difference between PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 NVMe and should you pay the premium

[Jarvis]

PCIe 5.0 SSDs are now around 150 to 200 pounds for 2TB, versus 70 to 90 pounds for a fast PCIe 4.0 drive. In real world use is there any reason to pay that premium?

Looking at this for a new gaming and general use build

[ShawnMichaels]

For gaming specifically: no. Game load times on a fast PCIe 4.0 drive are already so close to PCIe 5.0 that you will never feel the difference in practice. DirectStorage does not yet saturate PCIe 4.0 bandwidth

[Danny47]

For large file transfers, video editing with large project files, or running a lot of VMs: the PCIe 5.0 sequential read speeds of 12 to 14 GB/s versus 7 GB/s on PCIe 4.0 are genuinely useful

[Hannah56]

PCIe 5.0 SSDs run significantly hotter. Most need a heatsink included with the drive or a large motherboard heatsink. Factor that into your build planning

[StringTheory97]

The price gap has been closing. A year ago PCIe 5.0 was three times the price of PCIe 4.0. At current prices the premium is around 80 percent which is still hard to justify for most use cases

[QuantumToken98]

My honest recommendation: buy a fast PCIe 4.0 drive now and use the savings on more RAM or a better GPU. PCIe 5.0 prices will drop further

[Leo29]

If your workload involves moving large media files regularly the time saving does compound over months of use. For everyone else it is a spec sheet number not a real world improvement

[Scholar29]

Check that your motherboard actually has a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot before buying. Not all Z790 or X670 boards have one despite being current generation