Desktop PCs have only recently adopted the PCIe 5.0 interface, and just last month, the first PCIe 6.0 SSD became available. However, the push for advancement continues unabated with the PCI-SIG announcing the specification goals for PCIe 8.0. The new standard aims to achieve remarkable speed with a 16x PCIe 8.0 graphics card slot potentially achieving data transfer rates of 1 TB/s, surpassing the VRAM speed of an RTX 5080 by 7%.

The specification indicates a progression from PCIe 1.0 to 8.0 where throughput has consistently doubled – starting from 500 MB/s to 8 GB/s for a PCIe 5.0 lane. PCIe 8.0 targets a staggering 64 GB/s per lane, translating to a theoretical 1 TB/s for a substantial graphics card slot, marking an impressive 700% increase over PCIe 5.0.

The PCIe 8.0 announcement didn’t clarify the signaling methodology but speculations suggest it may utilize PAM4, like its predecessors, which enables higher data transfer without necessitating increased clock rates.

This advancement is anticipated to materialize around 2028, spurred by applications in AI, high-speed networking, and quantum computing, although gaming continues to be overlooked in these discussions.