GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 1000GB

The GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 1000GB is an early consumer PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive based on the Phison PS5016-E16 reference design. It pairs a 28nm dual-core Cortex-R5 controller with Kioxia 96-layer BiCS4 3D TLC NAND and a dedicated DDR4 DRAM cache for address mapping. Its maximum throughput is limited by the E16 interface and lags behind second-generation PCIe 4.0 controllers, but it delivers sustained performance that exceeds the saturation point of PCIe 3.0.

Key Specifications

• Interface: PCIe 4.0 x4 (NVMe 1.3)
• Sequential Read: Up to 5000 MB/s
• Sequential Write: Up to 4400 MB/s
• Controller: Phison PS5016-E16 (28nm)
• NAND Flash: Kioxia 96-layer BiCS4 3D TLC
• DRAM Cache: Yes (DDR4)
• Endurance (TBW): 1800 TBW
• Thermal Solution: Full-body copper thermal casing (adds significant z-height and width; generally non-removable)

Hardware Alternatives

• Corsair MP600 GS 1000GB: Shares the Phison E16 reference design with virtually indistinguishable I/O performance.
• Sabrent Rocket 1000GB: Shares the Phison E16 reference design with virtually indistinguishable I/O performance.
• Seagate FireCuda 520: Shares the Phison E16 reference design with virtually indistinguishable I/O performance.
• TEAMGROUP MP44Q 1000GB: Shares the Phison E16 reference design with virtually indistinguishable I/O performance.
• GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 1000GB: Distinct from its hardware relatives because of its full-body copper heatsink, which increases thermal inertia but adds height/width and may obstruct motherboard M.2 latches or integrated thermal armor, making it better suited to open desktop slots.