Thursday, June 13th 2024
Realtek to Join the PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Controller Race
Currently, only Phison offers widely available performance PCIe 5.0 NVMe controllers for consumer SSDs, although the competition is heating up and Chinese SSD controller makers MaxioTek and InnoGrit, as well as Taiwanese Silicon Motion either have or will be releasing competing controllers this year. However, it also looks like Taiwanese Realtek will be joining the fray, albeit a tad late, as their upcoming RTS5782 PCIe 5.0 NVMe controller, but the company didn't reveal a release schedule. Although Realtek is known as a more budget friendly chipmaker, regardless of the product segment, the RTS5782 will be an 8-channel controller with support for 3600 MT/s NAND, and it will have a dedicated DRAM cache using either DDR4, LPDDR3, LPDDR4 or LPDDR4x memory. It's said to deliver sequential read speeds of up to 14 GB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 12 GB/s, with random read and write IOPS hitting 2500K.
Realtek is also working on a pair of new DRAM-less models, the PCIe 4.0 RTS5776DL and the PCIe r5.0 RTS5781DL, both having support for 4-channel flash, but still supporting NAND speeds of up to 3600 MT/s. Engineering samples of the RTS5776DL are expected to be available before the end of this year, and it's said to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and random read and write IOPS of 1200K. The RTS5781DL will enter the engineering sample stage in the beginning of 2025 and will up the sequential read and write performance to 10 GB/s and the random read and write IOPS to 1400K. In addition to the new NVMe controllers, Realtek also had its RTS5736DL on display at Computex, which the company claims is the world's lowest power DRAM-less SATA SSD controller, that also supports size of up to 8 TB. Realtek claims the RTS5736DL is an ideal solution to pair with a USB 3.x bridge chip for external drives.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, Impress PC Watch
Realtek is also working on a pair of new DRAM-less models, the PCIe 4.0 RTS5776DL and the PCIe r5.0 RTS5781DL, both having support for 4-channel flash, but still supporting NAND speeds of up to 3600 MT/s. Engineering samples of the RTS5776DL are expected to be available before the end of this year, and it's said to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and random read and write IOPS of 1200K. The RTS5781DL will enter the engineering sample stage in the beginning of 2025 and will up the sequential read and write performance to 10 GB/s and the random read and write IOPS to 1400K. In addition to the new NVMe controllers, Realtek also had its RTS5736DL on display at Computex, which the company claims is the world's lowest power DRAM-less SATA SSD controller, that also supports size of up to 8 TB. Realtek claims the RTS5736DL is an ideal solution to pair with a USB 3.x bridge chip for external drives.
21 Comments on Realtek to Join the PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Controller Race
There aren't exactly a lot of drives using their controllers. Not a single PCIe 4.0 drive in the database using Realtek. The RTS5766DL is from 2020.
www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/#realtek
The Transcend 245S is based on the RTS5772DL, as are some AGI AI818 drives. Another not popular controller.
At least that's a 2023 part.
Hopefully this will help bring down the prices/up the capacity of Gen 5 drives real soon, and perhaps get things to the point of moving past the 14GB/s limit, which I know has alot to do with the speed of the NAND itself, which they already seem to be thinking about in their specs, but just sayin....
My bad then, I guess all the announcements from Computex fried my brain a bit.
@bonehead123
That’s all more or less irrelevant in practice for daily use until random R/W actually move up significantly. And I am not sure it really will. Seems like it’s NAND itself by its very nature is the bottleneck there.
Less a rub against Realtek, and more just the 'market' they found best penetration.
(IMO) What this does mean however, is that Gen5 NVMEs are going to be (and are) getting cheaper. (By observation) with few exceptions, Realtek is a low-cost high-volume device supplier.
Forgive my lacking knowledge but...
(Using these 'affordable' Gen5 Controllers) couldn't companies take older 'surplus' NAND, double-up and double-side the stick (utilizing more NAND channels), throw in some cheap low-voltage LPDDR3/4
-and 'fufil' Gen5 speeds through parallelizing cheap parts on-drive?
I just hope their PCIe 5.0 products are actually good, having a new company that's willing to source their SSD controllers would be nice (so not Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron). At least we have Maxio and Innogrit now.
The InnoGrit and MaxioTech controllers don't seem to have appeared in retail as yet and SK Hynix hasn't launched the Platinum P51 yet either. Silicon Motion are as we know, late as well.
So yes, PCIe 5.0 drives are likely to become cheaper soon, but it might not happen until next year.Sure, if you want a really poor performing drive, you can do that. Eight channel controllers aren't something new and there are already plenty of NVMe SSDs with four chips. There isn't really space for more than that, unless you go with a DRAM-less controller, but they don't support more than four channels.Yeah, I ended up buying an Apacer SSD that used to be Phison based, came with a MaxioTek controller. Sent it back without even plugging it in, since it wasn't clear they'd changed the controller. Now the MAP1602A is supposed to be good for a DRAM-less controller, unlike what you experienced, but even so.
There are a few more SSD controller makers, but Marvell seems to have thrown in the towel on consumer products, alongside Korean FADU who also only does enterprise controllers. JMicron gave up (they apparently sold it off to MaxioTek) and all the other ones are in a similar boat or focus on niche markets. There's Korean Novachips, but I haven't seen any hardware based on their chips.
www.novachips.com/products/flashStorageProcessor.asp
I'd be more willing to openly call them 'generic' (along with PNY). -Both are exceptionally notorious for mid-model 'cost optimization'.So, basically Realtek is 'least late to the party'?This is what I expect, when I see 'Realtek'. I typically assume anything Realtek is 'the budget option', or the 'high value option' at best.I see.
After all, 22110 M.2s and PCIEx4 AICs are pretty much 'out of style' in the consumer space.
www.techpowerup.com/295276/m-2-pcie-5-0-ssds-set-to-increase-to-25-mm-in-width-might-not-fit-older-motherboards
Phison haven't made anything yet that will fit in a laptop without catching fire. Every Phison Gen5 drive runs at Gen4 speeds (or lower) without active cooling, so what's the point?
I can understand sending the Maxio drive back on principle, although personally I'd like the MAP1602A over any other DRAMless controller and most other DRAM-using controllers too. In the latter case, purely due to low power consumption and low heat generation.
www.techpowerup.com/323430/silicon-motions-sm2508-set-to-launch-in-q4-edging-out-phison-as-top-ssd-controller
Not enough is known with regards to thermals when it comes to InnoGrit and MaxioTech.
InnoGrits IG5666 was shown at last years Computex. Seems like they had to node shrink it from 16 to 12 nm.
www.techpowerup.com/309462/innogrit-is-readying-consumer-pcie-5-0-nvme-ssd-controller-for-q4
And Team Group apparently has a drive based on it.
www.techpowerup.com/318286/team-group-releases-t-force-ge-pro-nvme-gen-5-ssd
No-one appears to have done any kind of power draw/thermal testing on it though and Team Group doesn't provide any figures.Have you seen any products based around their controllers?Well, it seems to be a decent controller, but when you expect one thing and get another... It goes back. It was also supposed to be my game drive, not a laptop drive.
I'd honestly be fine with it as a game drive or even OS drive, DRAMless doesn't bother me with MAP1602A's performance.
gen5 SSDs are already too hot for their own good
www.techpowerup.com/323430/silicon-motions-sm2508-set-to-launch-in-q4-edging-out-phison-as-top-ssd-controller
It's only Phison that is having thermal issues, as they seem to refuse to move to more advanced production nodes.
Considering Realtek is still developing their PCIe 5.0 SSD controllers, we have no idea about things like thermals.
www.techpowerup.com/323194/msi-shows-new-spatium-m560-ssd-spatium-vapor-chamber-ssd-cooler-and-other-ssd-accessories-at-computex-2024