Phison’s PS5016-E16 is one of the first SSD controllers to take advantage of the new PCI Express 4.0 interface, which was just launched along with AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series and motherboards with the X570 chipset. The PS5016-E16 will be used in the first wave of SSDs that are compatible with the new interface, so it’s an interesting chip for several reasons.
The most important launch at this year’s Computex trade show was AMD’s new Ryzen 3000 processors and their associated X570 chipset, which will be the first to market with support for the PCI Express 4.0 interface for consumers (check out a roundup of X570 motherboards on our sister site here). PCIe 4.0 simultaneously raises the performance bar for consumer SSDs, but only a few manufacturers have so far showcased products that use the interface – and most of them use a Phison controller.
One of Phison’s PCIe 4.0-capable controllers is the PS5016-E16, which offers a nice performance boost for consumer storage, with sequential read and write speeds reaching 5 GB/s and 4.4 GB/s, respectively. Random read/write performance has, however, not been revealed until now, in conjunction with new SSDs unveiled by CFD Gaming.
CFD Gaming’s range of devices uses the Phison PS5016-E16 in a range of models with 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB of storage capacities. The latter two unsurprisingly both provide sequential read and write speeds of 5 GB/s and 4.4 GB/s. The 500 GB capacity is a bit slower at 5 GB/s and 2.5 GB/s (read/write).
When it comes to random read and write figures, the results are somewhat less impressive. Random read performance tops out at 600,000 IOPS while random writes reach 550,000 IOPS. These results are close to Phison’s existing PS5012-E12 memory controller, which operates over PCI Express 3.0. This suggests that the PS5016-E16 is largely based on its predecessor.
CFD Gaming PCIe 4.0 SSDs – Specifications
| Product | CFD PG3VNF (500 GB) | CFD PG3VNF (1 TB) | CFD PG3VNF (2 TB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | PCI Express 4.0 x4 | PCI Express 4.0 x4 | PCI Express 4.0 x4 |
| Controller | Phison PS5016-E16 | Phison PS5016-E16 | Phison PS5016-E16 |
| Memory type | 3D TLC NAND | 3D TLC NAND | 3D TLC NAND |
| DRAM cache | 512 MB DDR4 | 1 GB DDR4 | 2 GB DDR4 |
| Sequential read | 5 000 MB/s | 5 000 MB/s | 5 000 MB/s |
| Sequential write | 2 500 MB/s | 4 400 MB/s | 4 400 MB/s |
| Random read | 400,000 IOPS | 600,000 IOPS | 600,000 IOPS |
| Random write | 550,000 IOPS | 500,000 IOPS | 500,000 IOPS |
| Endurance | 850 TBW | 1 800 TBW | 3 600 TBW |
Phison’s range of controllers is among the more widely used on the market. The company’s PS5016-E16 is likely to be a cornerstone in the first wave of SSDs products compatible with PCI Express 4.0. Additional drives from the biggest names in storage, i.e. Samsung, WD, Intel, et al, are expected to reach the market sometime after the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 3000 processors and X570-based motherboards.
