It wasn't that long ago that Intel touted Optane drives as the best SSD for gaming, claiming improved performance and responsiveness at the "low cue depths" where "most gaming action takes place. And indeed, some of Intel's solutions, such as the Optane 905P shown above, turned out to be very fast, but also very expensive. This is because Intel is discontinuing all of its Optane SSDs for client/consumer desktops.

Through a series of Product Change Notification (PCN) documents, Intel has effectively discontinued all of its dedicated consumer Optane SSDs, including the 900 and 905P series, 800P series, and M10 series. Retailers will no longer be able to submit orders for these product families, with final shipments scheduled to occur on February 26, 2021.

This means that they can still be found in the retail channel for a few months until buyers exhaust their existing inventory. This affects over a dozen SKUs in various form factors. Here is a list of the affected models:

Not only will existing models be discontinued, but Intel has stated that it has no plans to replace them with newer drives.

"Intel will not offer new high-capacity Optane Memory SSDs as a transitional product for the client market segment. Intel will focus on the new Optane Memory H20 with solid state storage for the client market segment," Intel stated in each relevant PCN document.

Our friends at Tom'sHardware asked Intel to clarify whether Intel meant that it was discontinuing its dedicated consumer Optane product line, and the company responded, "While technically correct, consumers will be able to use Intel Optane Memory H20, but consumers benefit from Optane-based solutions such as Intel Optane H20.

Intel's Optane Memory H20 is a hybrid solution that combines NAND flash and Optane memory on the same module, with the latter acting as a high-speed cache to accelerate performance. It cannot be installed in desktop PCs, but compatibility is limited to 11th generation Core U series CPUs or later.

This is not a surprising move; SSDs in general have become much faster over the past few years, especially as they have moved into the PCIe 4.0 realm. PNY, for example, recently introduced the XLR8 CS3140 with a rated read speed of up to 7,500 MB/s.

The biggest sign, however, came when Intel sold its stake in a joint manufacturing plant dedicated to producing 3D XPoint memory to Micron, a jointly owned memory manufacturer. Since then, the two companies have chopped and changed various production agreements for memory IP. Intel still owns some of it and can develop it independently of Micron if it wishes (one of the many decisions that Intel's incoming CEO, Pat Gelsinger, will have to make).

Intel also recently announced a multi-year sale of its SSD and memory business to SK Hynix. The deal does not include the 3D XPoint IP that Intel co-developed with Micron, which will still be offered in Optane products for the data center segment, but it does signal Intel's intention to exit the memory business in a big way.