Acer today introduced the FA300, a mid-range M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD. The drive brings PCIe Gen 5 speeds to a wider audience, and is based on a DRAMless controller. The company doesn't specify the controller type. Popular DRAMless Gen 5 controllers include Phison E31T and Silicon Motion SM2504XT. The FA300 comes in 1 TB and 2 TB capacity variants, which differ in performance. Both variants offer up to 11 GB/s of sequential reads, but while the 1 TB variant offers up to 9.7 GB/s sequential writes, the 2 TB variant goes a bit further, posting up to 10 GB/s sequential writes.

In terms of random access performance, the 1 TB Acer FA300 offers up to 1.4 million IOPS 4K random reads, with up to 1.6 million IOPS 4K random writes, while the 2 TB variant offers up to 1.7 million IOPS for both 4K random reads and writes. The company does not specify the 3D NAND flash type used. The 1 TB model is rated for 750 TBW (TB written) write endurance, while the 2 TB model offers 1,500 TBW. Both models are backed by 5-year warranties. Acer did not specify pricing, because it tends to be dynamic in the current market environment, but expect the FA300 to be among the more affordable Gen 5 SSDs.