PCIe 6.0 introduces thermal throttling on the link itself

With PCIe 6.0, the driver will be able to adjust and throttle the connection speed on the PCIe bus itself, if necessary given thermal constraints.

It appears that the PCIe 6.0 standard will be able to handle speeds that exceed the thermal limits of systems. Intel’s new driver includes the ability to adjust the PCIe speed on the bus itself, and even reduce the number of active PCIe lanes. This can happen when the system gets too hot.

PCIe 6.0 will be completed in 2022 and the first compatible devices will appear on the market soon. The standard doubles the bandwidth to 16 GB/s in total: useful for ultra-fast SSDs or powerful accelerators.

PCIe 5.0 is already ubiquitous today and offers 8 GB/s (4 GB/s in each direction). Devices that maximize connectivity are equipped with powerful heat sinks and fans to dissipate the generated heat. It now appears that experts are preparing for a scenario in which this is not enough.

slow down

If the system becomes too hot, the PCIe 6.0 driver will be able to reduce the connection speed so that less heat is generated. When that happens, PCIe 6.0’s advantage over its predecessor naturally diminishes.

Much will depend on how and when choking occurs. Including capacity in the driver shows that PCIe 6.0 is ready to take on components that push the boundaries of efficiency.