30 DECEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 382
GIGABYTEAorusNVMeGen4SSD
★★★★★
£261•From http://www.scan.co.uk
Smallfiles
Largefiles
Hugefiles
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage84f orperformancedetails
CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.26p•INTERFACE
NVMe•CLAIMEDREAD5,000MB/s•CLAIMEDWRITE
4,400MB/s•WARRANTYFiveye arsRTB•DETAILSwww.
gigabyte.com•PARTCO DEGP-ASM2NE6100TTTD
SPECIFICATIONS
835MB/s
1,658MB/s
1,747MB/s
THEFIRSTCONSUMERPCI-E 4.0 SSDs are
here,and they’re being ledby the Gigabyte
Aorus NVMe Gen4 SSD.These drives take
advantageof PCI-E 4.0’svastly improved
bandwidthover PCI-E 3.0–the standard
interface motherboards have been usingfor
years –tor each farhigher read and write
speeds, with this particular drive promising
sequential read speeds upto 5,000MB/s and
writespeeds upto 4,400MB/s.
HARDWAREACCELERATION
Considering the absolutefastest PCI-E 3.0
SSDs max out at around 3,600MB/s, the shift
to 4.0 could be the generational leapforward
that storage products have been waitingfor.
However,there are some barriersto clear first.
Most fundamentally,PCI-E 4.0 is currently
only natively supported on AMD X570
motherboards, with onlyahandful of X470
and B450 boards having had the capability
unlockedby the manufacturer.Ify ou install a
PCI-E 4.0 SSD inaPCI-E 3.0 slot, it will work,
but will only perform accordingto 3.0’s
capabilities; it’s therefore likely that you’ll
have to upgrade your motherboard before
you can enjoythe faster speeds.
Second, these new drives are seriously
expensive.The Aorus NVMe Gen4 SSD’s 1TB
model, which we’retesting here,works out
at asteep 26.1p per gigabyte–5pmore than
the Samsung 970 Evo Plus (Shopper375) and
13p more than theAdata XPG SX8200 Pro
(Shopper374). The biggest 2TB model is
slightly bettervalue,at2 2.4p per gigabyte,
but the smallest 500GB model comes in at
an obscene 36.6p per gigabyte. If you’re
factoring in the costof anew motherboard
as well, early adoptionof PCI-E 4.0
represents an enormous investment.
The Aorus NVMe Gen4 SSD at least
throws inalittle bonus:agleaming, golden
heat spreader,which unlike the kindof
one-side,stick-on spreader you sometimes
see bundled in, encases the whole drive.
You’ll haveto be mindful about installing,
VERDICT
Thearrivalof PCI-E4.0SSDsprovesthenewinterface’sspeed,butalsoitscost
1TB SSD
however,asi t’s arather bulky11mm thick,
and should your motherboard’s M.2 slot lie
underneath your graphics card, it might not
fit. Still, it’s optional, and the SSD itself can
be installed and operated normally without
any additional cooling.
We’re not convinced any extra cooling is
necessary after performancetesting, either.
In CrystalDiskMark’s sequential read and
writetests, which generally reflectadrive’s
best speeds, theAorus NVMe Gen4 SSD
hit 4,937MB/s and 4,279MB/s respectively.
Even if this writespeed is slightly below
what’s advertised, both results are
preposterouslyfast: the sequential read
speed, especially,isn early 1,500MB/s
quicker than the 970 Evo Plus.
The much trickier 4K randomtest
produceda641MB/s read speed and a
594MB/s writespeed, which are clearly
diminished but still standfarhigher than
any PCI-E 3.0 drive we’vetested. By
comparison, the 970 Evo Plus scored a
338MB/s read speed anda257MB/s write
speed, so theAorus NVMe Gen4 SSD is
already shaping upto be much better at
difficult, non-sequential transfer tasks.
HOLD FAST
Our own file benchmarks confirm this.
The huge-file transfertest didn’t initially
look all that amazing: with anaverage read
speed of 1,707MB/s andawritespeed of
1,787MB/s, it’s apparent that you’re not
going to get anywhere near maximum
speeds when shifting one big file.That said,
the Aorus NVMe Gen4 SSD remains the
fastest SSD on recordforthis test, with a
particularly wide lead on writespeed.
In the large filestest, it also held up
remarkably well, only dropping modestlyto
a1,624MB/s read speed anda1,692MB/s
writespeed. It was the most difficult small
file test, however,that provided the best
surprise: NVMe drives generally struggle
to break 500MB/s in this, but theAorus
NVMe Gen4 SSD managedaread speedof
834MB/s andawritespeed of 836MB/s.
In summary,this SSD isarecord-setter
across the board, and suggests that while
PCI-E 4.0 makesforsome headline-grabbing
peak speeds, its true strength lies in how
much more resilient it is whenfaced with the
most intensive tasks, as shown in our small-
file test and the CrystalDiskMark 4Ktest.
VENTURING FOURTH
Unfortunately,this performance showing
isn’t quiteenough to disregard thetoll that
this (and similar PCI-E 4.0 drives) will take on
your bank account. There’sacertain kickto
be had from using the latest andfastest
hardware,tobesure,but the reality is that an
extra 300MB/s here or there isn’t goingto
producearegularly noticeable difference
unless you routinely haveto move hundreds
of tiny files at once.
Gigabytewould probably pointto the
Aorus NVMe Gen4 SSD’s imposing sequential
speeds asacounterpoint, butforregular PC
use it’s only rarely goingto hit those speeds,
and if it does it will be in light tasks where a
much cheaper PCI-E 3.0 SSD will already do
the job just fine.That’s notto rubbish PCI-E
4.0 as awhole –ify ou happento have an
X570 motherboard andabit of extra cash,
go forit–b ut forthe time being, it’s an
upgrade that isn’t yet worth the expense.
JamesArcher
