- The upcoming Phison E37T SSD controller manages to max out PCI-E 5.0 read speed ratings at 14,900 MB/s
- It consumes less than a 3rd of the power of Phison’s older DRAM-infused SSD controllers
- The move is a crucial one, aligned with Phison’s anticipation of high DRAM prices in the foreseeable future, aimed at providing relief to mainstream and enthusiast consumers
With SSD prices moving sharply upwards over the last few months, thanks to unrelenting AI demand across the board, consumers are increasingly looking to the lower end of the spectrum to bridge the gap between their budgets and the cost of modern SSDs.
The upcoming Phison E37T SSD controller could help tide things over. It happens to be the first Gen 5 DRAM-less SSD controller to max out bandwidth over the 4 lanes available to an M2 SSD on modern PCs, laptops, and consoles.
The consumer-centric offering at least partially solves the RAM crisis by delivering comparable performance to bleeding-edge DRAM-infused SSDs, while remaining economical on power.
An economical, yet performant offering for mainstream consumers
Based on a recent interview with Tweaktown, which also received a review sample of Phison’s E37T, Phison was already monitoring the situation as it saw DRAM pricing propped up by insatiable AI demand and came prepared with a solution that caters to both performance users and gamers.
Phison’s Technical Marketing Director, Chris Ramseyer, stated: “We knew it was going to be a problem later on, in the future, for our flagship SSDs. And we needed a way, so we started working on a way.”
The E37T not only eliminates DRAM from the equation, much like the older E31T, which caps out at 10.3 GB/s, but also pushes to the ceiling of PCI-E 5.0 SSD read speeds at 14.9 GB/s while offering equally potent write speeds (13 GB/s).
With a peak power consumption rating of 3.4W and a sub-50% increase in IOPS compared to the E31T, it caters to consumers seeking enthusiast-grade performance without the cost of its older DRAM-equipped sibling, the E26.
Comparing the E37T to the E26 makes for an even starker picture. With less than a third of the peak power requirement of its predecessor, it also offers higher IOPS, peak read and write speeds, and circumvents the need for active cooling even as it supports much faster NAND flash (+33%).
While Phison is still testing the E37T and rolling out firmware updates across the board, some reviews are reporting mixed results, including a Tweaktown review that was unable to achieve over the mandated 5500 MB/s score on the PS5.
These issues are, however, expected to be ironed out when E37T-based SSDs finally hit the market later this year, in a future that seems increasingly DRAM-less for SSDs, at least until the current memory crisis abates.
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