MSI want to “redefine the gaming SSD” with their two TLC-based drives, providing top read and write speeds of 7000MB/s and 6900MB/s and maximum capacities as much as 4TB. Sadly, that was the level of what MSI revealed throughout their press conference, so we do not yet understand how these drives will vary from each other, how much they’re going to cost, or when we’ll have the ability to get our hands on them. However, we can see from the images that both look like they’ve got quite significant heatsinks connected to them, most likely eliminating any hopes of having the ability to stick them in your PS5.
Still, based on the information we do have– those all-important read and compose speeds– it appears like MSI’s SSDs will, in truth, be rather a bit faster than Samsung and WD’s flagship drives, at least when it pertains to compose speed. In this department, Samsung’s fastest 980 Pro drive peaks at 5000MB/s write speed, while WD’s best Black SN850 drive can hit 5300MB/s compose. MSI’s SSD, on the other hand, is miles out in front with its 6900MB/s compose speed, which will be quite the feat if that figure pans out when review samples are available. MSI’s SSD checked out speed, on the other hand, is quite on par with its competitors, as both Samsung and WD’s drives are ranked to hit a similar 7000MB/s.
Naturally, the much faster an SSD is, the more expensive it tends to be, which might work against MSI’s set of NVMe drives in the long term depending upon just how much they’re going to cost. Certainly, based on the current rates of Samsung’s 980 Pro, which start at ₤ 78 for 250GB in the UK sometimes of composing (and ₤ 210 for 1TB), MSI’s drives may just be a little too expensive to make that additional speed worth it.
Undoubtedly, even Samsung’s 980 Pro prices are currently a fair bit more than what you can invest in an older PCIe 3 NVMe drive such as WD’s exceptional Blue SN550 these days, which usually costs around ₤ 35 for 250GB and ₤ 95 for 1TB. While PCIe 4 is quite the way things are going for SSDs, older PCIe 3 drives are still perfectly quickly enough for video games and daily usage, and I presume prices for PCIe 4 drives will need to come down rather a bit before they end up being more widespread.
In any case, it’s interesting to see MSI branching out to a brand-new type of element this year, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how they compare to Samsung and WD’s drives later on in the year.