Kioxia launches XG10 PCIe 5.0 client SSD

Kioxia has followed its PCIe 4.0 XG8 client SSD with the XG10, a PCIe 5.0 M.2 drive for high-performance PCs – though its headline speeds still trail the fastest gumsticks on the market.

These internal drives typically range in capacity from 512 GB to 4 TB and use TLC (3 bits/cell) flash for performance rather than QLC (4 bits/cell) for capacity. The XG10 fits that pattern and puts out up to 2 million and 1.6 million random read/write IOPS,  with sequential read/write bandwidth of 14 GB/s and 12 GB/s. Kioxia says the new drives achieve up to 2x sequential read, more than 2x sequential write, and increases of approximately 122 percent in random read and 158 percent in random write performance – supporting faster data access and improved system responsiveness.

However, if we rank various suppliers' PCIe 5.0 M.2 drives by sequential bandwidth, we find the XG10 is only the eighth fastest:

Kioxia has not yet provided endurance and latency numbers for the XG10. The 512 GB and 1 TB capacity versions use sixth-generation BiCS 3D NAND with 162 layers, but the 2 and 4 TB variants are built with newer, 218-layer BiCS 8 flash.

It recently announced the BG8 DRAM-less gumstick drive, using the same PCIe 5.0 bus, and this has much lower performance numbers than the XG10. The BG8's random read/write performance is 1.4 million/1.3 million IOPS, with sequential reads up to 10.3 GB/s and sequential writes maxing out at 10 GB/s. You get what you pay for.

Kioxia says that the XG10 is intended for use in high-performance client system environments, such as professional applications, private AI training and inference, content creation and editing workflows, and immersive gaming experiences.

Maulik Sompura, senior staff director, product management, SSD business unit at Kioxia America, said: "With the Kioxia XG10 Series, we are delivering significantly enhanced performance that improves the overall client storage experience for content creators, gamers, and professionals working with increasingly demanding workloads." 

The XG10 is sampling to prospective PC OEM customers, with PC shipments equipped with the SSD expected to begin from the second quarter of 2026. The new drives will be showcased at Dell Technologies World, taking place May 18-21 in Las Vegas.