Fastest M.2 NVMe SSDs In 2022 (August Update) - GPCB

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Faster storage will speed up most of your PC activities – all the way from booting up your OS to loading apps and game assets. But not all SSDs are created equal. If you have an NVMe-capable M.2 slot on your motherboard, then this is where to install your system drive.

Some of the fastest M.2 drives right now depending on interface are:

• PCI-Express 5.0 (Gen5): WD_Black SN8100 or Corsair MP700 Pro XT
• PCI-Express 4.0 (Gen4): Samsung 990 PRO

For full compatibility with PCI-Express 5.0 (Gen5) SSDs, your system must be based on AMD’s AM5 platform (X670 and B650 motherboards or later), or Intel’s Arrow Lake Z890/B860 chipsets or later. Specific Z790 boards (Raptor Lake) also offer a Gen5 M.2 slot.

Table of Contents

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• A Closer Look at Leading Gen5 & Gen4 M.2 SSDs
• Best SSDs Ranked by Gaming Performance
• What is NVMe and why do I need it?
• Which is the Best M.2 SSD for Gaming?
• Will it Work on my Laptop/Desktop PC?
• Choosing the Right Capacity
• MLC Vs. TLC Vs. QLC NAND

A Closer Look at Leading Gen5 & Gen4 M.2 SSDs

Some of the latest Gen5 SSDs are already close to maxing out the PCIe 5.0 interface, but it’s a good idea to be selective. The first batch of Gen5 drives (based on the Phison E26 controller) are quite inefficient and run hot, meaning that they require bulky cooling solutions.

Product Fastest Gen5 M.2 SSD WD_BLACK SN8100 Fastest Gen4 M.2 SSD Samsung 990 PRO Image Sequential read (max., MB/s) 14,900 7,450 Sequential write (max., MB/s) 14,000 6,900 Random read IOPS (4K/QD32) 2.3M 1.4M Random write IOPS (4K/QD32) 2.4M 1.55M Warranty 5-Year 5-Year Endurance rating (TBW) 1,200 TBW (2TB) 1,200 TBW (2TB) Check Price View on Amazon View on Amazon Fastest Gen5 M.2 SSD Product WD_BLACK SN8100 Image Sequential read (max., MB/s) 14,900 Sequential write (max., MB/s) 14,000 Random read IOPS (4K/QD32) 2.3M Random write IOPS (4K/QD32) 2.4M Warranty 5-Year Endurance rating (TBW) 1,200 TBW (2TB) Check Price View on Amazon Fastest Gen4 M.2 SSD Product Samsung 990 PRO Image Sequential read (max., MB/s) 7,450 Sequential write (max., MB/s) 6,900 Random read IOPS (4K/QD32) 1.4M Random write IOPS (4K/QD32) 1.55M Warranty 5-Year Endurance rating (TBW) 1,200 TBW (2TB) Check Price View on Amazon

Last update on 2025-12-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Power efficiency and heat are no longer major issues with the latest Gen5 M.2 drives, and the performance leader in 2025 (so far) is SanDisk’s WD_Black SN8100. Using the Silicon Motion SM2508 controller and custom firmware, this SSD reaches real-world performance levels not seen since the legendary Intel Optane lineup.

The WD_Black SN8100 is currently ahead of the M.2 competition in the popular 3DMark Storage Benchmark and several other tests based on everyday workloads. Even the new 9100 PRO from SanDisk’s main competitor Samsung is clearly beaten. A drive that comes very close, however – and even surpass the SN8100 in other benchmarks – is Corsair’s brand new flagship the MP700 Pro XT. Unlike the SanDisk SSD, the MP700 uses Phison’s new E28 controller, which is much more power efficient than the E26.

If you are still on Gen4, on the other hand, the Samsung 990 PRO remains the fastest Gen4 SSD we’ve tested – but there are usually better bargains in the Gen4 space.

Best SSDs Ranked by Gaming Performance

The aim here is to rank SSDs based on their performance where it matters. In our case, this is gaming, but that happens to correlate with many other normal user workloads. Our benchmark of choice is UL’s 3DMark Storage Benchmark.

This popular benchmark consists of a range of gaming-related workloads that also apply to other usage scenarios. Scores are based on the average bandwidth from a variety of tasks, including loading, installing, saving, moving, and recording specific games.

1. The 2025 Speed King: WD_Black SN8100

In the past couple of years, nearly all PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 SSDs have been built using the same Phison E26 controller and NAND memory chips from Micron of varying caliber.

The WD_Black SN8100 instead uses a custom, eight-channel Silicon Motion SM2508 controller along with SanDisk/Kioxia BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND. These 218-layer chips run at a very fast 3,600 MT/s, contributing to the drive’s strong performance.

Another major advantage over its Phison E26-based competitors is that the SN8100 is much more power-efficient, meaning that you don’t need a huge cooling solution. SanDisk offers an optional version with a low-profile heatsink, but any motherboard heatsink should be enough.

Side note: Since early 2025, Western Digital and SanDisk are once again two separate companies, with the latter handling all Flash/SSD business. SanDisk still retains some WD branding including WD_Black/Blue/Red. 

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

2. Corsair MP700 Pro XT

We might as well have listed the Corsair MP700 Pro XT in first place, because it’s ahead of the WD_Black SN8100 in several benchmarks. It’s only marginally slower in 3DMark Storage, which we use for ranking. Either way, these drives are neck-and-neck in terms of performance where it matters.

What’s new here is Phison’s latest high-end E28 controller, which is far more power efficient compared to the E26 predecessor, meaning that you don’t need an oversized heatsink or fan here either. It’s a near certainty that we will see additional SSDs with this controller soon.

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

3. Kingston Fury Renegade G5

Kingston’s latest iteration of the Fury Renegade is a substantial step up from the previous-gen Fury Renegade. It has a great deal in common with the WD_Black SN8100, including an SM2508 controller and Kioxia BiCS8 NAND.

As a result, it can easily compete with the best in gaming scenarios (and elsewhere), even if it doesn’t quite match the WD_Black’s phenomenal overall score in the 3D Mark Storage benchmark.

We are expecting more great Gen5 M.2 drives later in 2025 (not least additional models based on the SM2508 controller), but the Kingston and SanDisk ones are topping the charts so far.

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

4. Samsung 9100 PRO

Much like WD/SanDisk, Samsung was not in a hurry to enter the high-end Gen5 space. It was worth the wait, however, as the Samsung 9100 PRO is both slightly faster and more efficient than the E26 competition.

The 9100 PRO uses Samsung’s in-house controller and NAND combo to reach a sequential throughput of up to 14,800 MB/s, and random performance of up to 2.6M IOPS.

This is enough to give the drive a small lead over the E26 competitors in key benchmarks, but the best part is that it uses less power in doing so. In other words: no massive heatsink is required.

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

5. Crucial T710

As a leading NAND manufacturer, Micron and its consumer brand Crucial was early in the scene with Gen5 SSDs. Unlike former speed kings like the T700 and T705, however, the latest Crucial T710 uses a Silicon Motion SM2508 controller instead of a Phison E26.

A key difference is that Crucial, unsurprisingly, is equipped with Micron G9 TLC NAND. This means that the drive is not necessarily faster in individual benchmarks, but it delivers equivalent performance while being far more efficient.

The improved power efficiency alone makes the T710 a much more compelling choice than its predecessors, but it can also compete with the best in terms of overall performance.

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

6. Crucial T705 (and Similar Competitors)

Crucial’s previous speed king, the T700, was dethroned by its T705 successor, as well as the similar Sabrent Rocket 5 and MSI Spatium M580. Like the vast majority of early Gen5 SSDs, these drives also use Phison’s E26 controller, but stand out by using the latest and fastest NAND memory chips from Micron.

As a result, they almost max out the PCIe 5.0 interface bandwidth with sequential transfer rates as high as 14,500 MB/s. That said, you are unlikely to notice the difference compared to some earlier E26-based revisions like the T700, Teamgroup T-Force Z540, and Corsair MP700 Pro, which all reach as high as 12,400 MB/s.

A downside of these early Gen5 SSDs that you will want to keep in mind is that they require efficient cooling to avoid thermal throttling. If you don’t have a decent heat spreader on your motherboard, you should opt for a model with a heatsink.

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

7. Seagate FireCuda 540 (and Other, Earlier E26-based SSDs)

The Seagate FireCuda 540 is another recent addition to the Gen5 space and it uses the same E26 controller as all of its current competitors. It is also equipped with the same 232-layer TLC NAND as all but the Crucial T700, meaning that it runs at 1,600 MT/s.

This translates to 10,000 MB/s sequential read/write speeds for the 2 TB model, while the 1 TB capacity is a bit slower at 9,500 MB/s (read) and 8,500 MB/s (write).

What sets the FireCuda 540 apart from the competition is the Seagate firmware and, perhaps more importantly, a significantly higher endurance rating. The 2 TB model is backed by a 2,000 TBW (terabytes written) rating and half of that for the 1 TB FireCuda 540.

Other Phison E26-based Gen5 SSDs with the same NAND and nearly identical performance include:

• Aorus Gen5 10000
• SSTC Tiger Shark
• Inland TD510 (Micro Center)
• Corsair MP700
• Adata Legend 970

8. TeamGroup T-Force GE PRO

You may have noted that there is very little difference between the leading Gen5 SSDs, as practically all of them use the same Phison E26 controller.

TeamGroup’s T-Force GE PRO, launched in mid-2024, brings something completely new to the table in the form of an Innogrit IG5666 controller and 232-layer NAND from YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies).

Its sequential performance is near the top of the charts at 14,000 MB/s (read) and 11,800 MB/s (write) for the 2 TB and 4 TB models. However, it still lags behind its E26 competitors somewhat in gaming and productivity benchmarks.

9. Samsung 990 PRO (Best Gen4 SSD)

Samsung was an undisputed leader in the SSD space for years, but more recently, the Korean electronics giant has often been unable to stay ahead of the competition. The 990 PRO is a return to form, with Samsung now retaking the lead in many key benchmarks that reflect real-world use.

This is perhaps not readily apparent when just looking at the sequential transfer rates, where the Samsung 990 PRO, much like the competition, basically maxes out the PCIe Gen4 bandwidth. It does excel in the random performance area, however, at up to 1.4M/1.55M IOPS read/write.

The drive uses Samsung’s proprietary Pascal controller, 176-layer NAND, and an LPDDR4 DRAM cache, which taken together have stood the test of time and still offer excellent performance in mid-2024.

Shopping links (1TB): Amazon, Newegg

10. Crucial T500

A somewhat surprising addition to the list of top performers is the Phison E25-based is the new (as of November 2023) Crucial T500. What makes it an unlikely leader is that the E25 controller only has four NAND channels, compared to the eight more commonly found in high-end SSDs.

The magic ingredient appears to be its 232-layer NAND from Micron, which can propel this drive to the top of several benchmark charts versus other Gen4 drives. We have recently observed the same trend even in DRAM-less SSDs like the impressive Teamgroup MP44, but the Crucial T500 does employ an LPDDR4 DRAM buffer that gives it an edge in many workloads.

Shopping links (2TB): Amazon, Newegg

11. Western Digital WD Black SN850X

Launched in 2020, the original WD Black SN850 was and still is one of the fastest M.2 SSDs on the consumer market. Two years later, the drive was updated with higher-density 112-layer BiCS 5 NAND memory chips. Improvements are mainly seen in random read/write performance, which has gone from 1M/720K IOPS to 1.2M/1.1M IOPS in the 2 TB capacity.

This appears to be more than enough to propel the SN850X to the top of the charts in real-world benchmarks such as PC Mark 10 and 3DMark’s SSD gaming test. As is the case with most of the leading SSDs, the 2TB and 4TB capacities are the strongest in the lineup due to the advantages of parallelism. For more details on how it compares to the Samsung 990 Pro, visit this page.

Shopping links (1TB): Amazon, Newegg

What is NVMe and why do I need it?

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).

The NVMe protocol – short for non-volatile memory express – was created to make the most out of solid state drives in combination with the PCI-Express (PCIe) interface. It replaces AHCI (paired with SATA), which was originally designed for mechanical hard drives. The newer protocol includes many efficiency improvements to deal with parallel transfers and the low-latency nature of SSDs.

High-end NVMe SSDs are also slowly but steadily becoming even faster in gaming PCs thanks to GPU acceleration via Microsoft’s DirectStorage API. AMD and Nvidia are implementing this technology under the names Smart Access Storage and RTX IO, respectively. A couple of AAA titles that use DirectStorage technology include Square’s Forspoken and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Which is the Best M.2 SSD for Gaming?

The difference between an SSD and a hard drive regarding user experience is very noticeable. To date, the effect of shifting from one type of SSD to another is not necessarily apparent, but it depends on the game. In addition to the previously mentioned 3D Mark Storage Benchmark results, here is some of my data from the standalone Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringer benchmark:

In this benchmark, multiple scenes/levels are loaded, and the above are the total loading times for these levels. While the difference between budget and high-end SSDs is noticeable, it is crowded at the top. Any SSD will be much faster than any hard drive in games – even if it’s an external SSD in an enclosure.

Although it is now a bit dated, this comparison by HardwareUnboxed is also quite illuminating:

Until recently it was safe to assume that a comparison of individual high-end M.2 PCIe SSDs would result in small differences in terms of gaming performance. The gap has however grown wider between Gen3 and high-end Gen4 or Gen5. Microsoft’s DirectStorage may widen it further as the API makes its way into more new releases.

Will it Work on my Laptop/Desktop PC?

PCIe Interface Version

Interface	Transfer Rate per Lane	Throughput x1	Throughput x4 (M.2 SSD)
PCI Express 3.0	8 GT/s	0.985 GB/s	3.934 GB/s
PCI Express 4.0	16 GT/s	1.969 GB/s	7.877 GB/s
PCI Express 5.0	32 GT/s	3.938 GB/s	15.754 GB/s

Each PCIe interface version doubles the bandwidth over the previous generation. This doesn’t equate to twice the performance, but even though newer versions are backward-compatible, there is no use in paying more if your system can’t use the extra bandwidth.

To make full use of a Gen5 SSDs, AMD’s AM5 platform (X670 and B650 motherboards or later) is a minimum. Intel platforms supports Gen5 SSDs starting with Arrow Lake Z890/B860 chipsets or later. There are also some high-end Raptor Lake Z790 boards with a compatible slot.

Keying and Sizes

M.2 SSDs (and other M.2 cards) come in different sizes and some motherboards – particularly in laptops – will only hold a drive up to a certain size. They also have different sets of notches (keying) that will prevent you from installing it the wrong way.

M.2 Keying and Size

Three different key types or ‘notch styles’ may be used by M.2 SSDs: B, M, or B&M. The socket can be either B or M, but not both.

High-end SSDs and recent motherboards use an M-key slot, as this is the only type that provides four lanes of bandwidth, or 20 Gbit/s, also known as PCIe x4. B-key supports ‘only’ PCIe x2 or 10 Gbit/s.

On many motherboards, the connector itself or the PCB next to it will be labeled with the keying. Otherwise, check the specs or the manual. Likewise, M.2 card length might be stamped on the board, looking something like this:

High-capacity drives have additional memory chips mounted on the card and may require more space in some cases. The M.2 standard allows for cards of five different lengths, with the number format meaning width-length in millimeters. All sizes are the same width, so the two most common, 2280 and 2242, are 80mm and 42mm long, respectively (and so on). All sizes and usage examples:

• 2230 – SSD in Steam Deck, and other compact devices. Also WiFi adapters.
• 2242 – Some ultrabook-type laptop SSDs and (more rarely) WiFi cards
• 2260 – Small form-factor laptop SSDs (very rare)
• 2280 – Most common form factor for NVMe SSDs in desktop PCs/laptops
• 22110 – Mainly enterprise SSDs

Most PCs including laptops can accommodate the common 2280 size (the format used by all of the drives listed above). 22110 drives will fit on many desktop motherboards but are extremely rare in the consumer market. The 2230 and 2242 form factors are more often used for WiFi cards than for SSDs. However, 2230 drives like the Corsair MP600 Mini have seen an upswing in popularity as it’s the format used by the Steam Deck.

Also, don’t confuse M.2 and mSATA, which is another, older standard. These slots may look similar on the motherboard, but they’re not compatible. M.2 SSDs may also use the SATA interface, but that doesn’t mean it’s an mSATA drive.

It is a bit confusing, but fortunately, M.2 2280 is the most common standard by far, so it’s harder than it looks to get it wrong.

Checklist Before Buying an M.2 SSD

• Check the drive’s interface and M.2 keying, e.g. B+M-key/M-key (all PCIe x4 SSDs are M-key).
• Make sure it matches the slot on your motherboard or in your laptop. You can usually find this information on the specs page.
• Also, ensure that the length of the drive is supported, e.g. 2280 or 2242 (numbers in bold are millimeters).

To sum things up about keying and interfaces: it might sound complicated, but isn’t. If you are building a PC based on modern standard components, it will practically always have at least one M-key slot for a 2280 M.2 SSD. And if so, most of the popular M-key or B+M-key drives will work. But there may be rare exceptions, so it’s best to double-check.

Choosing the Right Capacity

You can hardly ever have too much storage space, but all of it doesn’t have to be super fast. There is no reason to use an expensive, high-end SSD to store family photos or your Steam library backups.

Most importantly, you want to boot from your fastest drive. That means it must be able to store the OS and all of its associated files (such as caches and swap). And it’s not that much:

• Windows 11: 64 GB minimum requirement
• Windows 10 (64-bit): 20GB
• MacOs Catalina: 12.5GB
• Ubuntu 20.04: 25GB
• Manjaro 18/19: 30GB
• Linux Mint 20: 20GB
• Elementary OS 5 (Debian/Ubuntu): 15GB
• Fedora 30 Workstation: 10GB
• OpenSuse Tumbleweed: 40GB

Those numbers may or may not be a minimum requirement, but also add – at the very least – the amount of RAM in your system to be on the safe side (to make room for the swap file). Office apps are usually not that demanding either, with MS Office taking up about 4 GB of space on your SSD. Games tend to use a lot more but can range in size from a few hundred megabytes to well over 100 gigabytes, i.e. a lot more demanding in terms of storage space.

If you just want a really fast computer for work (and who doesn’t?), you can probably get by with as little as 128 GB and use mechanical hard drives for general storage. However, when looking at the price/performance ratio (performance is usually improved in larger capacities), 1–2 TB is a reasonable price point with few compromises.

MLC Vs. TLC Vs. QLC NAND

In any SSD context, you will inevitably run into the MLC, TLC, and QLC abbreviations. What these signify is the number of bits that can be written to each cell in NAND (Not-AND) memory chips. In the early days, just one bit could be written to each cell, hence the name single-level cell, or SLC. Solid state drives using SLC memory were (and now only in very rare cases, are) extremely durable but also prohibitively expensive.

Consumer SSDs became common once density increased to two bits per cell, also known as multi-level cell or MLC. Most high-end drives today use the even denser triple-level cell, or TLC, memory type, whereas some budget SSDs use quad-level cell or QLC NAND.

The downsides to increased densities are – all other things being equal – worse performance and durability. Adding additional bits per cell adds to the complexity and cells will be worn down in fewer write/erase cycles.

Nevertheless, today’s TLC-based drives are far faster than older MLC drives thanks to some highly innovative use of buffering and caching technology, whereby data is first written in SLC mode and then to the slower TLC memory. The durability problems have also mostly been solved using, among other things, spare capacity (overprovisioning) to spread out the wear over time. On the whole, today’s TLC-based SSDs are not only much faster but also durable enough to outlast most other PC parts for the average user.