Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 2TB Gen 5 SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 2TB3. 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

Kioxia's latest Exceria Plus drive is the fourth generation of the Plus range of drives, hence the G4 branding. The drive is Kioxia's first using a PCIe Gen 5 interface aimed at the consumer market space.

For the pair of Exceria Plus G4 drives (at the time of writing, it's only available as 1TB or 2TB models), Kioxia has used Phison's latest Gen 5 controller, the E31T. Sequential performance for the 2TB G4 is quoted as up to 10,000MB/s for reads and up to 8,200MB/s for writes. The 1TB model gets the same read rating but with writes down at 7,900MB/s. Both capacities are rated the same when it comes to 4K random performance – up to 1,300,000 IOPS for reads and up to 1,400,000 IOPS for writes.

Phison created the world's first PCIe 5 controller, the mighty PS5026-E26 and now they have a couple more firsts with the PS5031-E31T. It's the first Gen5 controller aimed at the mainstream market segment, and its the world's first DRAM-less design for Gen 5. The world has moved on since the 12nm process 8-channel E26 was introduced as the E31T is built on a 7nm process and supports four channels and has been designed to run more efficiently and cooler than the E26. Also, DRAM-less design helps to maintain lower temperatures.

Benchmarking the drive with the ATTO tool, we couldn't quite confirm the rated 10,000MB/s maximum speed for the drive, but the best we saw of 9,690MB/s is still pretty close. Writes, on the other hand, were spot on at 8,230MB/s.

Officially, the 2TB drive is rated up to 1,300,000 IOPS and up to 1,400,000 IOPS, respectively, for 4K random reads /writes. With our threaded tests, we could get nowhere near the official maximums, with the best test figures of 506,688 IOPS (QD16) for reads and 443,203 IOPS (QD16) for writes. Switching over to the Peak Performance profile settings in CrystalDiskMark 8, we could confirm the official read /write figures with a default read score of 1,451,170 IOPS with writes at 1,606,249 IOPS.

The Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 doesn't have a heatsink, but it does have a layer of what looks like copper built into the product label to help disperse heat. Phison has claimed that for everyday use, the E31T doesn't need a heatsink, but we stayed on the cautious side and tested it under the heatsink of our Gigabyte AORUS X670E Xtreme motherboard. During testing, the hottest the drive got was 44°C when the drive was running the CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential QD1-32 T1 Write test. For the majority of the testing, the drive averaged 38°C, while the 4K-based tests averaged out at 33°C. both figures are very impressive for a Gen 5 drive.

We found the 2TB version of Kioxia's Exceria Plus G4 on Scan UK for £154.99 (inc VAT) HERE.

Pros

• QDs1 and 2 4K write performance.
• Runs cool for a Gen5 drive.
• Well priced.

Cons

• Only two capacities at launch.
• Disappointing write performance in some tests.
• DRAM-less.

KitGuru says: Kioxia's Exceria Plus G4 is only the second retail drive we've seen using Phison's latest E31T controller, and it uses it to pretty good effect. It offers 10,000MB/s and 8,200MB/s read/write performance for the mainstream market and produces that performance while running relatively cool. Kioxia have given it a fighting chance with a competitive price tag.

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