I really wish Gen5 SSDs had become relevant by now, at least for what most people use their PCs for. The current inflated SSD prices aside, Gen5 SSDs just aren't worth the investment if you're a gamer or regular user. Plus, you need to deal with high thermals and giant coolers just to avoid throttling. While Gen4 SSDs seem like the default choice for the majority of users, most people will be just fine even with a Gen3 SSD. If you have one in your PC, there's no rush to upgrade to a faster SSD. If you're in the market for a new drive, that's a different story.
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Gen5 NVMe SSDs are blazing-fast, but gaming doesn't care
Gaming is all about random speeds
Gen5 SSDs are mighty impressive when you look at the sequential read/write speeds. After all, around 15,000MB/s transfer speeds are no joke, especially when Gen4 SSDs maxed out at around 7,000MB/s. The doubling of sequential read/write speeds has continued since we moved from Gen3 to Gen4 drives, and high-end Gen5 SSDs have brought things to a whole new level. The thing is, however, that sequential speeds don't move the needle much when it comes to gaming. Since gaming depends on random IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second), which didn't really see a massive jump when going from Gen3 to Gen5 SSDs, the real-world benefits of blazing-fast SSDs to gaming are pretty slim.
DirectStorage was supposed to make all the extra speed on Gen5 SSDs worth it for gaming, but it hasn't seen much traction outside a few titles. Things might pick up in the near future, but Gen5 drives are basically worthless for now. Besides, these high-end drives tend to run pretty hot, requiring overkill coolers just to keep them from thermal throttling. Considering the thermal overhead, premium pricing, and little to no benefit in gaming or general system responsiveness, Gen5 drives are only really worth it for hardcore professionals.
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The difference between a Gen4 and Gen3 SSD is subtle
Most people can't even tell the difference
You probably already knew that Gen5 SSDs are still ahead of their time, but what about Gen4 drives? Surely, PCIe 4.0 SSDs are completely worth it, right? Well, it turns out most of what you do on your PC doesn't even saturate Gen4 speeds. Whether it's gaming load times, OS boot times, or general system responsiveness, your Gen4 SSD isn't being stressed by the system. If you do a blind test by using a Gen3 and Gen4 SSD system, you won't be able to tell them apart. The jump from hard drives to SATA SSDs, and from SATA drives to Gen3 SSDs, is significant, but everything henceforth represents only a subtle performance jump, at least in most cases.
More than the sequential transfer speeds mentioned on your SSD's product page, what matters more for your perceived experience are features like DRAM and the type of controller on your SSD. A DRAM cache speeds up write-heavy workloads on your PC — think file transfers, video editing, game streaming, and even gaming performance in titles with base building and procedural generation. The SSD's controller also determines a lot of the drive's data transfer performance, latency, and IOPS. You should check third-party reviews to see if the drive you want to buy has a decent controller on it.
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Buying Gen3 drives still doesn't make sense
It's all about the money
You might think that buying a Gen3 drive is better if you can't see any real-world difference between Gen3 and Gen4 SSDs. It would be if Gen3 SSDs were significantly cheaper than Gen4 models. The latter have been on the market for years, and have become the default for PC users, at least those who build their own rigs. So, cost arbitrage vanished a long time ago. Today, many Gen3 SSDs actually cost more than Gen4 counterparts, making any argument against Gen4 SSDs pointless. If you're building a new PC or buying additional storage, just get a 1TB or 2TB Gen4 NVMe SSD. You don't need to get rid of your existing Gen3 drives, but buying a new PCIe 3.0 drive is pointless now. Besides, a Gen4 drive will benefit you in non-gaming scenarios in the future if you decide to dabble in productivity workloads.
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Gen4 SSDs might be overkill for most users, but they're still the best choice
For most regular workloads like browsing, launching apps, gaming, and booting the PC, Gen3 SSDs are still just fine. Gen4 SSDs are the sweet spot in terms of performance and price, and can benefit you with certain workloads. Gen5 SSDs are the fastest in terms of sequential speeds, but don't offer much in terms of real-world performance boost. If you're using a Gen3 SSD, there's still no need to upgrade, but if you're buying additional storage, a Gen4 drive is the best choice, unless you can make use of Gen5 speeds for productivity workloads.