According to KS Pua, the CEO of Phison, the adoption of PCIe 5 standard by manufacturers has been slow due to the economic scenario that has seen a decline in 2022, coupled with inflation and recessions around the world. 

Phison has been working on developing the E26 controller with 7nm nodes. Though it may not gain popularity until 2024, it gives ample time to improve the hardware. However, one known issue is that the controller tends to overheat, which could be improved if manufactured with 5nm technology. New processors and GPUs are expected to help boost the market acceptance of this standard in the coming years.

Despite Intel's recent introduction of PCIe 5 with its 12th generation Alder Lake chips, it will still take some time for this technology to become mainstream. While PCIe 5 SSDs offer significant bandwidth improvements, they are currently considered "premium" and have steep prices, with a 2TB model costing around $500. It will likely take some time for these prices to become more accessible for the average consumer. Pua predicts that it will take until the second half of 2024 for PCIe 5 SSDs to reach their full potential compared to PCIe 4 SSDs. Despite the higher costs of PCIe 5 SSDs, they have been popular among esports-focused PC makers and content creators for streaming, recording, and editing. Phison has been working on SSD controllers, such as the E26, built with 7nm nodes, which may only become popular in 2024. While Intel has started using PCIe 5 with its 12th generation Alder Lake chips, PCIe 5 SSDs are still considered premium and not affordable for most users.

Phison CEO Predicts Slow Adoption of PCIe 5 SSDs Until Second Half of 2024