Another detail worth noting is that, much like the FireCuda 530, you have to opt for the 2TB or 4TB models to get the best possible performance.Ĭheck prices (1TB): Amazon, Newegg 2. The main disadvantage compared to the FireCuda 530 is that the latter comes with a significantly higher endurance rating at 1,275 TBW versus the KC3000’s 800 TBW (1 TB capacities). This makes it a leading choice if you are building a PCIe Gen4-compatible system that does not compromise on storage performance. However, the KC3000 model manages to outperform the FireCuda in several benchmarks. The Kingston KC3000 uses the same Phison E18 controller and 176-layer TLC NAND from Micron that recently propelled Seagate’s FireCuda 530 to the top of the charts. Best PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Overall: Kingston KC3000
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In the PCIe 3.0 generation, the Samsung 970 EVO Plus is still an excellent choice – not least because it’s a lot more affordable than the best PCIe Gen4 SSDs.
It is closely followed by the Seagate Firecuda 530 and Corsair MP600 Pro XT, both of which are based on nearly identical hardware. Although Gen4 drives are backward-compatible, they offer no performance benefit.Īs of May 2022, the Kingston KC3000 is one of the fastest Gen4 SSDs overall. There is no need to invest in a more expensive Gen4 SSD for use in a Gen3 system. Many users – and those with Intel builds in particular – are still on PCIe Gen3. Gen4-capable systems are however also quite recent and start with Intel’s 11th/12th-gen Core platforms or an AMD counterpart based on a Ryzen/Threadripper 3000/5000 CPU and an X570, B550, or TRX40 motherboard or later. Hence, the fastest M.2 SSDs right now use the PCIe 4.0 (Gen4) standard. PCIe 5.0 (Gen5)-capable motherboards have now started to arrive with Intel’s 600-series chipset, but there are still no SSDs that utilize this latest version of the interface.
In addition, you have to account for multiple generations of the PCIe interface itself. If you have a relatively modern motherboard, it most likely has a PCIe/NVMe-capable (and therefore much faster) M.2 slot, so this is the type of drive to look for. Some M.2 SSDs use the SATA interface and have the same performance limitations as any 2.5″ drive. When shopping for a new SSD, it is also important to remember that M.2 is just a form factor that says nothing of the drive’s performance. The newer protocol includes many efficiency improvements to deal with parallel transfers and the low-latency nature of SSDs. It replaces AHCI (paired with SATA), which was originally intended for mechanical hard drives. The NVMe protocol – short for non-volatile memory express – was created to make the most out of solid state drives in combination with the PCIe interface. The performance of any storage device boils down to how quickly it lets you move data from storage (non-volatile, slower) to DRAM (volatile, faster).