NVMe M.2 Gen4 SSDs without a heatsink would present significant performance issues due to temperature
The heatsink is essential in NVMe M.2 Gen4 SSDs, to avoid thermal problems and a drop in performance.
Newer motherboards with X570 chipset implement the PCIe 4.0 interface. Currently this type of interface can only be used if we install SDS M.2 NVMe units. Despite the leaks, it is not clear if any manufacturer implemented PCIe 4.0 on motherboards with X470 and B450 chipsets. For this very reason, TechPowerUp colleagues have installed NVMe M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs on PCIe 3.0 motherboards.
Of course, the first thing that happens is that performance drops a lot. This is due to the limitation of the PCIe 3.0 connection interface. It has gone from 5000MB / s reading and 4264MB / s writing to 3483MB / s reading and 3464MB / s writing. These new units use the Phison PS5015-E16 controller, which apparently has temperature issues.
Serious Temperature Issues on M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs
Not only do they all carry the Phison PS5015-E16 controller, but they all carry Toshiba's 3D TLC NAND Flash memory. It seems that at the moment they are the only units compatible with this new controller. What differs between the different units is the cooling system. And this is the key point, since the heat dissipation system is vital in these new units for their correct operation.
They have focused on the AORUS NVMe Gen4 SSD drive. This unit is characterized by implementing a large copper heatsink. The contact with the different chips is made by means of high efficiency thermal pads. Copper is used, because it is a great conductor of heat and allows temperature to dissipate quickly.
Said NVMe SSD unit reaches 101ºC without the heatsink, in the Phison controller after 30 seconds in a stress test. The most important thing is that after reaching that critical temperature, the performance drops to the beast to 500MB / s. This is because the unit is protected, preventing it from exceeding 100ºC, which could damage the unit.
After this test to the NVMe SSD, they have reinstalled the copper heatsink. The unit is around 80ºC and works without major problems, since there is no thermal throttling. This clearly indicates that the heatsink is essential in these units, to avoid problems and loss of performance. A situation that is not new, but that, in this case, shows that the Gigabyte heatsink is of great quality.
