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Gen 5 (PCIe 5.0) NVMe SSDs are the fastest consumer drives you can fit in an M.2 slot, with top models reading at 14,800 to 14,900 MB/s and writing above 13,000 MB/s. The real-world win is biggest for large sequential transfers such as 4K and 8K video, RAW photo libraries, 3D scenes and game asset streaming, rather than everyday app loading, where a good Gen 4 drive already feels instant.
To choose well, confirm your motherboard has a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, plan for cooling, and match capacity to your workload. TLC NAND holds sustained speeds better than QLC, and a drive with a built-in heatsink or fan avoids thermal throttling under long writes.