Kioxia's BG6 M.2 2230 SSD is 1.7x Faster Than BG5, Doubles Capacity

Flash NAND producer Kioxia has announced that it is preparing the BG6 Series of client SSDs. These are touted to deliver an impressive 1.7x performance uplift compared to the previous gen (BG5). Kioxia boasts that the BG6 Series SSDs also double the max capacity to 2TB, while maintaining the compact M.2 2230 form factor. It will also be making M.2 2280 single-sided form factor versions of the BG6 available.

Kioxia BG6 M.2 2230 SSDs use the PCIe Gen4 x 4 interface and are claimed to deliver data transfers speeds of up to 6.0 GB/s read and 5.3 GB/s write, with I/O performance of up to 900,000 IOPS. The only hardware change flagged by Kioxia — which may well be instrumental to the new faster performance, increased density, and plus improved power efficiency — is the transition to the firm's 6th Generation BiCS Flash 3D NAND chips. These new drives are DRAM-less, but use Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology for caching.

For a better perspective on the new generation Kioxia BG6 M.2 2230 drives, let's compare the specs with the previous gen model and the recently announced Sabrent Rocket Q 2230 devices.

As we mentioned when Sabrent recently launched its Rocket Q devices with 2230 form factor, it is good to have another contender in the market. The availability of the highest capacity 2TB M.2 2230 devices has been poor, but back in Feb. we reported that Framework started using its buying muscle to help secure stock of 2TB M.2 2230 SSDs for Steam Deck upgraders. Framework started sourcing Western Digital SN740 2230 drives, which offer up to 5.15 GB/s transfers and 800,000 IOPS, depending upon capacity.

Kioxia isn't yet talking about pricing for its BG6 M.2 2230 SSDs, but says it will start sampling them with OEMs in H2 this year. If you're currently looking for a new SSD, check out our list of best SSDs.