Intel has retired Optane technology for consumer and enterprise products, meaning new laptops with Optane are no longer being produced. Optane worked by using a small amount of fast memory to accelerate a larger, slower storage drive, resulting in performance that was faster than traditional hard drives. Although Intel is no longer developing Optane, it continues to support existing products and is working with partners to find replacements, such as Solidigm's new SSDs.
How Optane worked and its speed
What it is: Optane was a type of memory used as a cache to speed up laptops and PCs. It kept frequently used data close to the processor for near-instant access, making the system feel faster than if it had to retrieve the same data from a slower drive.
Performance: In laptops, Optane was most commonly seen in hybrid drives that combined a small Optane module with a large hard drive. This combination gave the system SSD-like responsiveness for things like booting up and opening applications, but with the larger storage capacity of a traditional hard drive.
Speed advantage: Optane memory had significantly lower latency compared to traditional NAND flash SSDs, which is a key factor in responsiveness.
Why it was retired
Discontinuation: Intel announced the discontinuation of its Optane products, including the consumer versions, and stated it would not develop future Optane products.
Replacement technology: The market for Optane has been replaced by technologies that are more cost-effective. Companies like Solidigm, which was created by Intel's sale of its NAND business to SK Hynix, are now introducing new ultra-fast SSDs that serve as a replacement for Optane.
What this means for you
No new Optane laptops: You can't buy a new laptop with Optane, as the technology is retired from production.
Existing devices: If you have an existing laptop with Optane, you can continue to use it. Removing the Optane module will result in a decrease in performance because you will lose the speed boost it provided.
Future options: When purchasing a new laptop, you should look for a model with a modern, fast SSD (like NVMe SSDs) or a hybrid drive, as these technologies have replaced Optane and offer comparable or better performance.