NVMe Gen 5 vs Gen 4. — Two drives. Every benchmark. One verdict per use case.

Synthetic benchmarks — where Gen 5 wins on paper

We ran both drives through CrystalDiskMark 8.0.6 and ATTO Disk Benchmark on the same X870 board, AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64GB DDR5-6400, single CPU-direct Gen 5 M.2 slot. The Gen 5 drive used its bundled finned heatsink with one 140mm intake aimed across the M.2 area.

Sequential numbers are the headline. Gen 5 nearly doubles the 990 Pro on big-block reads. But notice the QD1 random — the metric that actually matters for Windows responsiveness — barely shifts. 4K random is fundamentally a NAND-flash latency story, not a bus bandwidth story. Gen 5 doesn't change physics here.

The sustained write cliff is where Gen 5 quietly impresses. Both drives use SLC cache to absorb bursts, but the T705 falls back to a higher floor (2,400 MB/s) than the 990 Pro (1,800 MB/s). For sustained 100GB+ writes, that gap matters.

Game load benchmarks — Cyberpunk, BG3, Hogwarts

We averaged three cold-boot loads per game, character creator skipped, same save file. Loading screen entry to gameplay handover. Stopwatch and frametime log.

The pattern is sharp. Traditional load paths give Gen 5 about a 10-11% edge — measurable on a stopwatch, invisible in feel. DirectStorage-native titles widen the gap to 25-35% because the GPU pulls and decompresses asset streams at a queue depth that Gen 4 can't fully feed.

Blender and Premiere — where Gen 5 earns its premium

Creator workloads are where the bandwidth difference shows up on the invoice.

Blender 4.2 — BMW Production scene (78 GB): file open + scene load took 47 seconds on the 990 Pro, 31 seconds on the T705. That's a 34% reduction. Across a workday of iterating, opening, saving and reopening, you reclaim 15-20 minutes.

Blender Cycles render frame caching: identical performance. Caching is GPU and CPU bound; SSD bandwidth doesn't move the needle.

Premiere Pro — 8K ProRes 422 HQ four-camera multi-cam: Gen 4 dropped 6-8 frames per minute during timeline scrubbing. Gen 5 maintained 60fps preview with no frame drops. For wedding videographers and corporate content teams editing 8K, this is the difference between a finished cut and a frustrating day.

Premiere Pro — 4K H.265 single-camera: identical performance. The codec bitrate (around 120 Mbps) is nowhere near Gen 4's 7 GB/s ceiling.

DaVinci Resolve 19 — 100GB project copy from drive A to drive B: 14 seconds on Gen 4, 8 seconds on Gen 5. Across daily backup workflows, the time savings compound.

Thermal throttle reality

Gen 5 controllers run hot. Phison E26 (T705, MP700 Pro) and Silicon Motion SM2508 (newer designs) sit at 80-90°C under sustained write workloads. The Samsung 9100 Pro is slightly cooler at 75-85°C thanks to a newer process node, but still well above what a stock M.2 motherboard heatsink is designed to dissipate.

We measured throttle behaviour by running sequential writes for 5 minutes and logging temperature and throughput:

The lesson: Gen 5 absolutely requires its bundled cooler AND case airflow. Without both, you'll see throttled performance that often falls below Gen 4 levels — wasting the entire R3,000 premium.

M.2 slot platform support

Gen 5 NVMe needs a Gen 5-capable M.2 slot, and most slots that claim "Gen 5" are CPU-direct. Chipset-routed Gen 5 lanes are rare and often share bandwidth with other devices.

AMD platforms

• X870 / X870E: at least one Gen 5 M.2 slot mandatory in the spec. Most boards include two.
• B850: Gen 5 M.2 optional. Some boards include it (Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite, MSI B850 Tomahawk Max), others don't.
• X670 / X670E: usually one Gen 5 M.2 slot, sometimes two.
• B650 / B650E: rarely include Gen 5 M.2 — check the spec sheet.
• A620: Gen 4 only.

Intel platforms

• Z890: Gen 5 M.2 optional but standard on most premium boards.
• B860 / H810: Gen 4 only typically.
• Z790: some premium boards added Gen 5 M.2 retroactively — check before assuming.
• B760 / H770 and older: Gen 4 only.

PSU and airflow planning

Gen 5 SSDs draw 9-11W peak, vs Gen 4's 7-9W. Any modern PSU sized for your GPU has more than enough headroom. The bigger consideration is case airflow.

Gen 5 drives mounted on top-side M.2 slots benefit from front intake fans pushing air toward the back of the case. Bottom-side slots (under the GPU) are harder to cool because the GPU dumps hot air directly onto the drive heatsink. If your case has a single bottom intake under the GPU, that fan does double duty.

ITX builds are the hardest case. The Lian Li A4-H2O has roughly 18mm clearance for the M.2 area before the GPU. Many Gen 5 heatsinks exceed that. Always verify physical fitment before ordering — the heatsink dimensions are buried in the SSD spec sheet.

Price per GB curve in SA

Gen 5 sits at roughly 2x the per-GB cost of Gen 4 across mainstream capacities. At 4TB the multiplier worsens. For raw storage value, Gen 4 wins decisively. The question is whether your workload turns the Gen 5 bandwidth into time savings worth that premium.

Verdict per use case

Pure gamer — Buy Gen 4

Save R3,000. The 0.7-second loading delta isn't perceivable, DirectStorage adoption is still slow, and your money buys more performance elsewhere (GPU tier, more RAM, faster cooler). A Samsung 990 Pro 2TB or WD Black SN850X 2TB is the right call for almost every gaming rig in 2026.

Gamer + occasional video / streaming — Buy Gen 4

OBS captures and 4K H.265 recording don't approach Gen 4's ceiling. Save the premium for a second drive instead — separate game drive and capture drive both on Gen 4 outperforms a single Gen 5.

8K video editor — Buy Gen 5

This is where the premium pays back. Multi-cam scrubbing without frame drops, faster project loads, smoother timeline preview. Samsung 9100 Pro is the safer pick; Crucial T705 is the value alternative.

3D artist / Blender / Unreal Engine devs — Buy Gen 5

Large asset library loads, scene caching, texture streaming — all benefit. The Blender 78GB scene save is the kind of operation you do dozens of times a day.

Photographer / audio producer / Lightroom-heavy workflow — Buy Gen 4

Catalogues, RAW imports, audio session loads don't push the storage bus. Gen 4 is overkill already.

Future-proofing buyer (2027-28 horizon) — Reasonable Gen 5 case

If you genuinely keep drives for 4-5 years and want to ride one drive into the DirectStorage 1.2 era, Gen 5 makes a real future case. Just budget for proper cooling.

Key takeaways

1. Synthetic Gen 5 wins are real (14 vs 7 GB/s) but real-world game loads close to within 10%.
2. DirectStorage-native games (Forspoken, Avatar) widen the gap to 25-35% — the actual Gen 5 use case.
3. Blender 78GB scenes load 34% faster on Gen 5. 8K Premiere multi-cam runs without frame drops.
4. Thermal throttle is the silent killer — bundled cooler + case airflow is mandatory, not optional.
5. X870/X870E mandatory for Gen 5; Z890 and B850 optional; older platforms Gen 4 only.

Frequently asked questions