Maybe I'm missing something but how does a newer version of the PCI-e spec directly lead to enormous benefits for a database that's running entirely in RAM?

In fact, on the surface, I would think that "traditional" databases (i.e., those residing on actual storage devices) would be more likely to benefit enormously as a result of this "upgrade" -- because of the massive increase in available bandwidth for storage and networking, of course.

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(I'll certainly admit thatI don't follow or keep up with developments in new generations / iterations of Intel processors / hardware architectures, but I'm assuming that Intel's Xeon CPUs still access RAM via their own memory controller. Intel has definitely done (more than) their fair share of stupid shit over the years but I'm guessing they haven't recently decided that, now, the proper place for system memory is on the PCI-e bus!)