Kioxia Exceria PRO G2 4TB PCIe 5.0 SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Kioxia Exceria PRO G2 4TB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. 128KB Sequential Performance8. 4K Random Read v QD Performance9. 4K Random Write v QD Performance10. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance11. 4K Random Performance QD1-QD812. Throughput13. PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark14. 3DMark Storage Benchmark 15. Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Official Benchmark16. Temperatures17. Real Life File Testing18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

The latest drive to join Kioxia's Exceria range of SSDs is the Gen 5 Exceria PRO G2, the new flagship high-performance model. The new drive range comprises three drive capacities: 1TB, 2TB and the flagship 4TB model (the latter of which Kioxia supplied for review).

The Exceria PRO G2 uses a combination of a Silicon Motion SM2508 8-channel controller paired up with Kioxia's BiCS8 218-layer 3D TLC NAND. Silicon Motion's 8-channel SM2508 has been designed to offer high performance together with low power consumption, which helps reduce the problem that all Gen 5 drives have to deal with, namely heat production. The Kioxia Exceria PRO G2 doesn't have a heatsink, but it does have a layer of what looks like copper built into the product label to help disperse the heat.

Sequential performance for the 4TB PRO G2 is quoted as up to 14,900MB/s for reads and up to 13,700MB/s for writes. The 2TB drive is rated at up to 14,900MB/s for reads and up to 13,400MB/s for writes, while the 1TB drive gets up to 14,400MB/s and 12,700MB/s for reads and writes, respectively. When it comes to random 4K performance, the 4TB drive is quoted as up to 2,300,000 IOPS for reads and up to 1,950,000 IOPS for writes. The 2TB drive gets up to 2,250,000 IOPS and up to 1,950,000 IOPS for reads and writes, respectively, while the 1TB is rated at up to 2,000,000 IOPS for reads and 1,900,000 IOPS for writes.

Benchmarking the drive with the ATTO tool, we could confirm the rated 14,900MB/s maximum speed for the drive with a test result of 14,930MB/s with writes at 13,760MB/s, a tiny bit ahead of the official maximum of 13,700MB/s.

Officially, the 4TB drive is rated up to 1,300,000 IOPS and up to 1,400,000 IOPS, respectively, for 4K random reads/writes. With our four threaded tests, we could get nowhere near the official maximums, with the best test figures of 556,572 IOPS (QD32) for reads and 474,063 IOPS (QD32) for writes. Switching over to the Peak Performance profile settings in CrystalDiskMark 9, we still came up short on the official read/write figures but were much closer, with a default read score of 2,063,466 IOPS and writes at 1,836,028 IOPS.

The thermal controls for the drive work well, as the hottest the drive got during our test runs was 36°C when the drive was running the CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential QD1-32 T1 Write test. For the majority of the testing, the drive averaged 31°C, while the 4K-based tests averaged out at 27°C. Both figures are very impressive for a Gen 5 drive.

We found the 4TB version of Kioxia's Exceria PRO G2 on Scan UK for £775.99 (inc VAT) HERE.

Pros

• Sequential performance.
• Runs pretty cool for a Gen5 drive.

Cons

• Disappointing write performance in some tests.
• Pricey.

KitGuru says: Kioxia's Exceria PRO G2, makes good use of the latest NAND and controller technologies as it is the company's fastest Gen 5 model to date. It offers 14,900MB/s and 13,700MB/s read/write speeds while running relatively cool.

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