IT TOOK ITS MERRY TIME. But with the latest 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU family, Intel can finally support PCle Express Gen 4 on the desktop. Better 18 months later than AMD and its PCIe 4.0-capable Ryzen 3000 CPUs than never, huh?
Whatever. You now have free reign to build a PC based on a platform from either of the core hardware vendors without worrying about interconnect spec. As for why PCle 4.0 matters, as ever, it comes down to speed. If you want the fastest connection speed for peripherals, you need PCIe Gen 4. And if there's a single component that benefits most from more PCIe bandwidth, it's storage.
Gen 4 doubles theoretical bandwidth over Gen 3 to fully 8GB/s in both directions. Thanks to AMD's early move in the Gen 4 space, there are already a wealth of PCI Express Gen 4 drives to choose from and several get remarkably close to the full capability of the interconnect.
What's more, SSDs have avoided the debilitating price rises suffered by some PC components over the past year or two. Now, you not only get more speed but also more storage for less money. By CPU and GPU standards, a multi-TB SSD is positively affordable. None of which means, however, that all Gen 4 drives are equal. So, it's time to find out how six of the very best perform.
Crucial P5 Plus 1TB
JUST NINE DOLLARS. That's how much extra you currently have to pay for the Crucial P5 Plus 1TB with PCle Gen 4 capability over the older Crucial P5 Gen 3 drive. The plain old P5, should we need to remind you, returns barely more than half the performance by several measures. Even if you don't have a Gen 4 capable rig right now, it surely makes sense to go with the Gen 4 drive and future-proof your storage for any possible CPU and motherboard upgrade.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2022 de Maximum PC.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 2022 de Maximum PC.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
What exactly is an 'AI' PC?
AI, EVERYWHERE, all at once. That, in a nutshell, is what's happening to the computing industry. The PC, inevitably, is not immune. Later this summer, you'll be able to buy a machine that officially qualifies as an 'Al' PC, according to no lesser an authority than Microsoft. But you might be surprised at who's making it.
Intel Raptor Lake Core 19 Instability Problems
THE RACE BETWEEN AMD AND INTEL has heated up in the past few years as Ryzen processors have become increasingly competitive. The amount of headroom for overclocking has shrunk in response, and it seems motherboard vendors may have tweaked settings a bit too aggressively.
LG ANNOUNCES GAMING OLED
The panel can alter refresh rates and resolutions
Intel announces 6th Gen Xeon brand
'Xeon Scalable' becomes the Xeon 6 series
CREATE A SECURE WIREGUARD VPN SERVER
Discover how to securely access your home network when out and about, with Nick Peers
HP Omen 45L
HP's biggest desktop PC offers mighty gaming potential
Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Pulse
The Golden Rabbit Edition goes global
Use Photoshop's new AI features
YOU'LL NEED THIS PHOTOSHOP CC 25.5 OR LATER
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU'VE BEEN HACKED?
Don't let attackers sneak under your radar: Nik Rawlinson reveals the telltale signs to look out for
THE BATTLE OF THE BUILDS DEDICATED VS INTEGRATED GPUs
We put AMD's latest Ryzen 5 8600G to the test