PCIe 6.0 Will Run So Hot That It Needs Thermal Throttling
PCIe 6.0 Will Run So Hot That It Needs Thermal Throttling
One of the common issues with new PCIe 5.0 SSDs comes down to the heat – the amount of data delivered through the PCIe 5.0 connections demands so much processing that heat has become a big issue, requiring huge passive heatsinks or active cooling to keep the thermals in check. If the latest development from Intel is any indication, it’s not going to get better soon.
PCIe 6.0 is still years away at best from entering into the mainstream, though its launch to the market will be reasonably soon. Still, it is targeted to double the already-fast bandwidth that PCIe 5.0 can offer (PCIe 5.0 x16 maxes out at ~63GB/s), and even the most powerful GPUs today are not remotely close to saturating the bandwidth on tap. However, the new standard demands so much bandwidth over its link that heat generation has begun to get in the way, and overheating is a bad idea for longevity and signal integrity.
To keep thermals in check, Intel has been developing a PCIe bandwidth controller driver on Linux that features a thermal throttling feature similar to how CPUs work. Put simply, if the PCIe port gets too hot, the system will drop its link speed down to limit heat generation, thus preventing overheating. For example, a PCIe 6.0 x16 link may drop itself down to x8 to x4 mode momentarily if it detects high temperatures.
For now, this will not concern you as far as performance goes – we’re still years away before a consumer device may reach the limits of what the next-generation PCIe standard can accommodate. The new standard will, as usual, see its presence first in data center environments where huge amounts of data move around each cluster, which can be extremely demanding for its hardware.
Source: Tom’s Hardware | Phoronix
Pokdepinion: Seems like this has given us a hint on what the developmental direction may look like for future gaming motherboards. Enhanced cooling on PCIe 6.0 connectors, anyone?
