There's a common misconception about PCIe 5.0 SSDs that since they're the latest-generation SSD storage and boast faster speed and bandwidth compared to PCIe 4.0 SSD, anyone who gets one is going to experience a big uptick in PC performance. That's certainly not the case as we've shown by analyzing things like gaming performance. But there are a few exceptions to that rule. In fact, if any of the below statements are true for you, you may well have a justifiable reason for splurging out on a costly PCIe 5.0 SSD upgrade. Scientists and other professionals work with very large amounts of data -- often terabytes but sometimes even petabytes in size.

The MSI Raider 18 HX AI isn't a looker, but it packs incredible CPU and GPU performance. The MSI Raider 18 HX AI is the very model of a "desktop replacement" laptop. It's big, it's not much to look at, and it has a mediocre touchpad that implies users are really expected to connect a mouse. That might leave some shoppers asking, "What's the point?" That question is answered once the laptop is tossed into a demanding game or application. It might be thick, but the MSI Raider 18 HX delivers top-tier CPU and GPU performance. It even has gobs of RAM and a PCIe 5.0 solid state drive.

AMD has confirmed that their laboratory has successfully run the company's first Ryzen "Phoenix" CPU equipped with Xilinx AI acceleration engine, which is also AMD's first application after acquiring Xilinx. The president of AMD's Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group confirmed at the AI Hardware Summit that they have next-generation Ryzen CPUs running in the lab, equipped with Xilinx's AI acceleration engine. This also confirms that the AMD Phoenix Point CPUs have been officially taped out, but there is still a long way to go before the new products go on sale, and they still need to go through a rigorous verification process in the lab. Unsurprisingly, AMD is expected to show off its Phoenix Point CPUs for mobile platforms at CES 2023, under the new naming scheme the company recently announced. That said, the Phoenix Point APUs will arrive as the AMD Ryzen 7000 mobile processor family.