PCIe Gen3 M.2 vs. PCIe Gen4 M.2 vs. SATA SSD

ROUND 1

Value

Uh-oh! PCIe Gen4 stumbles right out of the gate. While the new M.2 SSDs boast incredible specs, those specs come with a less-than-excellent price tag. Even the cheapest Gen4 SSD is going to set you back over $100, with larger sizes, such as 2TB drives, running over $400. The performance gain over Gen3 simply isn’t significant enough to justify the price shift, unfortunately. Meanwhile, Gen3 M.2 prices have dropped since the release of the new generation, meaning it’s now a great time to make a purchase. A terabyte of high-speed Gen3 M.2 storage is currently available for scarcely more than $100—a far cry from the expensive HDDs of yesteryear.

You might expect SATA SSDs to be