Western Digital Demos Blazing-Fast Gen5 SSD Performance With In-House Controller: 7W “Performance” SSD Up To 15 GB/s, 5W “Mainstream” SSD Up To 10.7 GB/s

Western Digital has demoed spectacular performance of its next-gen Gen5 SSDs which feature low-power modes of 5W and up to 15 GB/s speeds.

Western Digital Showcases Brutally Fast & Low-Power Gen5 SSDs With Performance "7W" & Mainstream "5W" Consumer Storage Devices, Up To 15 GB/s Speeds

At FMS 2024, Western Digital showcased its next-gen storage solutions based on its in-house Gen5 SSD controller. These products will target the consumer segment and come in various options for PC platforms such as desktops and laptops. Western Digital has mainly released mainstream and high-end Gen4 drives throughout 2024 when others were rolling out their respective Gen5 SSDs, hitting speeds of up to 14.5 GB/s using the Phison E26 controller. We only recently saw the influx of other controllers in the market such as InnoGrit's IG5666 which also delivers over 14.0 GB/s speeds but utilizes 2400 MT/s & 232-Layer NAND Flash (TLC).

Related Story ADATA Legend 970 PRO 2 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Review – 14 GB/s InnoGrit With Cable-Free Active-Fan Cooling

For its Gen5 SSD solutions, Western Digital will be incorporating its own in-house Gen5 controller which utilizes BiCS8 218-layer 3D TLC NAND and features up to 8-channel DRAM & 4-channel Non-DRAM designs. According to the SSD manufacturer, the drives offer up to 2 TB of storage capacities with twice the performance uplift and 55% efficiency uplift over Gen4 SSDs. Western Digital is also demoing its Gen5 SSDs on laptops (mobile workstations), making it a first for the Gen5 segment in general.

Starting with the products, we first have the high-end "Performance" Gen5 SSD solution which is rated at a power draw of 7W and delivers up to 15 GB/s speeds and over 2 million random IOPS (Read) (@6.53W to be exact). That's very good considering early Gen5 SSDs have been going beyond 10W with the higher-performance variants. For the "Mainstream" Gen5 SSD segment, the manufacturer has its DRAM-less design with 4 channels and rated speeds of up to 10.7