This is excellent news, but… PCIe 6.0 is not fully utilized yet, while PCIe 5.o is still widely used. But that doesn’t prevent PCI-SIG from releasing the 0.5 version of the PCIe 7.0 specification. The final version is set to be released in 2025. So, we still have plenty of time before the newer standard is applicable. Supported devices are not expected to be released before 2027. And it probably will not hit our shelves before being utilized in the industry segment first. Newer features tend to be more useful in industrial applications on their release. And the consumer market doesn’t need the bandwidth and these blazing-fast speeds yet. Traditionally, PCIe bandwidth tends to double with every newer standard release. That would mean that PCIe 7.0 could deliver up to 128 GT/s and up to 512 GB/s bi-directionally via x16 configuration.
More bandwidth means that the newer standard will benefit various sets of standards like WiFi7, USB4, SSDs, etc. We shall wait to see what to expect from the newer SSDs because bandwidth might be beneficial, but we need appropriate upgrades to the NAND and so on. Not to mention thermal throttling, as well. Nothing comes out without the necessary “sacrifices.” No standard had managed that yet.
To sum up, PCIe 7.0 is a welcome upgrade, but the consumer market, at the least, will be fine for some more years with today’s standards. We shall wait to see how it will be applied and when it will be usable and useful for the average user. For more tech news, stay tuned to our site!
