M.2 nvme gen3 vs nvme gen4: comparative performance and characteristics
Table of contents:
- What does the PCIe 4.0 bus offer us compared to 3.0 in M.2 slots
- How and where M.2 slots are connected to new Boards
- Introducing the contenders to buy in the M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4
- 512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe
- AORUS NVMe Gen4 1TB
- M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4: benchmark results
- Conclusions about M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4
PCIe 4.0 is a reality, although currently we can only find it on the AMD X570 platform, but it is more than enough to make a comparison between M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4.
The first models of NVMe SSD storage units under this bus since they are commercialized in the market, and we already had access to the Corsair and AORUS models. In this comparison we will face precisely the AORUS NVMe Gen4 of 1 TB and the AORUS RGB NVMe of 512 GB, whose Reviews are on our page.
Index of contents
What does the PCIe 4.0 bus offer us compared to 3.0 in M.2 slots
This must be one of the main points of this comparison, since it is of little use to see the numbers if we do not know how far we could go in both types of buses. Recall that the SSDs we are comparing will be plugged into one M.2 M-Key PCIe x4 slot, i.e. four lanes of data.
The PCI Express 3.0 bus is currently operating on all motherboards of desktops, laptops and mini PCs. All except for the motherboards with AMD X570 chipset, although of course, the 4th generation bus offers backward compatibility with the 3.0. This version of PCIe offers us lanes in which the data is able to circulate simultaneously up or down, which has been a two-way transfer. The speeds that will mark each of these lanes will be 984.6 MB / s both up and down, that is, 7.9 Gbps. If we do accounts, an M.2 x4 can reach 3, 938.4 MB / s, 32 Gbps rounding.
Now let's look at the bus in version 4.0, which can only work on AMD boards with Ryzen 3000 7nm processors. This bus is still bi-directional and features the same online code as the 3rd generation, with 128b / 130b strings. But now the speed has doubled, so a single line is capable of a speed of 1969.2 MB / s up and down. In a x4 configuration it will be 7, 876.8 MB / s or what is the same, 64 Gbps.
How and where M.2 slots are connected to new Boards
The connection configuration of the M.2 slots on the boards will depend a lot on the manufacturer, the chipset and the range of the board, and of course on the number of slots that have been installed. It should be said that we do not have the same PCIe lanes in an Intel Z390 chipset as in an Intel B360, and much less in the X470 or X570.
Focusing on these new AMD boards with the X570 chipset, we almost always find two or three M.2 slots running under PCIe 4.0 x4. If we have two of them, one will always be directly connected to the Ryzen CPU lanes, while the other will be connected to the X570 chipset. In the case of having three slots, we can find two of them connected to the chipset, losing part of the available rails for connector USB ports or other PCIe slots for expansion cards.
We must bear in mind that when we connect an AMD Ryzen 3000 to these boards we will have natively enabled the support for bus 4.0. But in the case of installing a Ryzen 2000 the bus will automatically become 3.0, limited by these processors.
Introducing the contenders to buy in the M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4
Now let's see what are the two SSD drives that we are going to test. We wish they both had exactly the same storage capacity. Since in higher capacity units the performance is usually a little higher because the controller has more busy channels. Obviously not possible because the capacities in both units do not match.
512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe
Let's start with the unity of the previous generation. It is an SSD with 3D TLC BiCS3 NAND memories built by Toshiba. That unit is available in 512 and 256 GB, with a Phison PS5012-E12 controller capable of addressing up to 8 TB under the U.2 interface and 2 TB under M.2. It is the manufacturer's most powerful version for this bus, and this time it has two busy channels with two 256 GB memory chips.
The manufacturer's sequential read and sequential write rates are 3, 840 MB / s and 2, 000 MB / s respectively. Likewise, the rates of input and output operations per second (IOPS) are 360K and 440K. We must bear in mind that these figures will rather depend on the controller and not so much on the bus.
AORUS NVMe Gen4 1TB
In the other corner we have the new generation AORUS SSD, which has been presented this 2019 with capacities of 1TB and 2 TB, double and quadruple than the previous one. It also uses Toshiba memories, although in this case the BiCS4 model with 96-layer NAND 3D TLC technology. Specifically it will be 4 chips, each of them of 256 GB. For management we have the new Phison PS5016-E16 controller manufactured in 28 nm that is capable of addressing 8 TB of memory in 8 channels. Inside it are two 32-bit ARM Cortex R5 processors.
The manufacturer's sequential read and sequential write rates for this new SSD are 5000MB / s and 4400MB / s respectively. While the operations per second IOPS amount to 750K and 700K respectively.
M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4: benchmark results
Without further ado, let's see how the results developed in each of the SSDs we tested. The programs used were the following:
- Crystal Disk MarkAS SSD BenchmarkATTO Disk BenchmarkAnvil´s Storage
In all the programs we have used the same versions for both units.
AORUS NVMe Gen4 1TB
512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe
In this first test, we see some figures more adjusted to the theoretical specifications by the 4th generation SSD. In fact, we are only a few MB / s below in sequential reading, while in writing we are about 130 MB / s below. In the Gen3 model we have figures that even exceed those established in writing, staying below reading in about 250 MB / s.
The following results are no less interesting, since the improvements in reading larger blocks are not at all striking, in fact, we are in very similar values. The greatest increase occurs in 4KB blocks writing with 8 queued requests and 8 processes accessing the drive (Q8T8). The registers mark more than double the performance, while in the other measures we are also close in both models.
AORUS NVMe Gen4 1TB
512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe
We pass to the next test, in which we also measure sequential data in random reading and writing in 4KB blocks. Here again we see better numbers especially in the writing area for all cases, with much higher values in the new generation, although it does not seem that this program is taking full advantage of the 4.0 bus speed judging by the low figures in sequential operations against CristalDiskMark.
One of the improvements that we have in PCIe 4.0 is that the latency is substantially better in requests and data transfer. And this we do see perfectly represented here, being values that duplicate the Gen3 bus in both reading and writing.
AORUS NVMe Gen4 1TB
512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe
With ATTO we can measure sequential reading and writing with blocks of many sizes, from 512 B to 64 MB. And here the controller-memory-bus set is much more stable in transfer speeds for this new generation. In almost all cases we are above 4.3 GB / s in reading and between 3.8 and 3.9 GB / s in writing.
AORUS NVMe Gen4 1TB
512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe
We end with the results of Anvil's that once again we are close to 4 GB / s in sequential reads and writes. Although as usual in this software, the numbers are far from those shown by other programs such as CristalDiskMark.
Curiously, we see very low IOPS in the AORUS Gen4, very close to the Gen3 model, which makes us think that this version is not going too well on this SSD. At least we do see latencies that are almost half in the newest model to the oldest, especially in writing.
Conclusions about M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4
If anything is clear to us from this comparison, it is that we already needed this new PCIe 4.0 standard on desktop computers. Although it is true that currently it does not make sense to connect graphics cards or other expansion hardware. Since the 16 lanes that these need, they are still very much in capacity for the current video resolutions in which we work.
But it was too small for the new SSDs under the M.2 interface. We already see that, in this first wave, we have reached 5000 MB / s, and we are still far from the limit of 7870 MB / s that it may have. While manufacturers build faster memories and controllers, these registers are the maximum available under this interface. Likewise, latencies have practically halved in this new generation
Although of course, AORUS did not stay here, and during Computex 2019 it also presented the fastest storage unit in the world, although with a trick, of course. It was an expansion card with four 2 TB Gen4 SSD drives in RAID 0 configuration that are capable of reaching 15, 000 MB / s in sequential read and write. Of course, enter the news and you will see that the rest of the records are quite discreet not to say bad for what we have in our hands.
And we do not want to end without seeing where the prices of these M.2 NVMe Gen3 vs Gen4 storage units are, since it is a fairly important issue for users. The AORUS NVMe Gen4 1 TB is found for a price of 288 euros, while the 2 TB amounts to no less than 495 euros. If we go to the 512 GB AORUS RGB NVMe, then we will have to pay 107 euros, and 76 euros for the 256 GB version. Let's take into account that a 1 TB Samsung 970 EVO is around 219 euros, which really is not that far considering that it is the new generation and includes a copper sink.
Gigabyte AORUS 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD / Drive… 299.50 EUR Buy on Amazon Gigabyte AORUS 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD / Drive… 582.98 EUR Buy on Amazon Gigabyte Aorus RGB Solid State Unit M.2 256… 90, 70 EUR Buy on Amazon Gigabyte AORUS RGB M.2 NVMe SSD 512GB - Hard Drive… 94, 24 EUR Buy on AmazonWithout further ado, we leave you with some links of interest in case you are thinking of buying an SSD:
Do you think these new SSDs are worth it? What would be your choice among all those on the market?
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