The Fastest M.2 NVMe SSDs in August 2020
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Moving to faster storage can shave seconds off most of your PC activities – from booting up your OS to loading apps and games. If you are currently booting from a hard drive, there is no other upgrade that will have such a noticeable effect on your user experience as an SSD.
But not all solid state drives are created equal. If you have an available PCIe M.2 slot on your motherboard (desktop or laptop), then this is where to install your system drive. The best m.2 drives are also compatible with the modern storage interface protocol NVMe.
Table of Contents
- What is NVMe and do I need it?
- Fastest VS best value M.2 SSD
- Best M.2 NVMe SSDs 2020 (May)
- What drive is the best for gaming?
- Will it work in my desktop/laptop PC?
- How to choose the right capacity
What is NVMe and is it necessary?
Image credit: Intel
SSD performance boils down to is how fast it lets you move data from storage (non-volatile, slow) to DRAM (volatile, fast).
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. Its predecessor AHCI (paired with SATA) was originally intended for mechanical hard drives. The newer protocol includes many efficiency improvements to deal with parallel transfers and the low-latency nature of SSDs. If you want to learn more about NVMe, start with this introduction by Intel.
When shopping for a new SSD, it’s important to remember that M.2 is just a form factor that says nothing of performance. Some M.2 SSDs operate over the SATA interface and come with the same performance limitations as a 2.5″ drive. If you have any relatively modern motherboard, it most likely has a PCIe/NVMe-capable (and therefore much faster) M.2 slot, so this is the type of drive to look for.
Fastest Gen4 Vs. Gen3 M.2 SSD
If you want an M.2 SSD that is consistently fast in all areas – and don’t mind paying more – you can opt for one that uses MLC (multi-level cell) Flash memory chips, such as the Samsung 970 PRO. But if you don’t work with storage-heavy applications, you will not notice the difference compared to a drive based on 3D TLC (triple-level cell) memory. TLC-based drives are more affordable but can be as fast as MLC-based SSDs thanks to clever use of caching technologies.
As of now, the vast majority of the leading M.2 SSDs in both the PCIe 3/Gen3 and the PCIe 4/Gen4 categories use TLC memory. So for a fair comparison, we will stick to this memory type in our top picks of each:
Last update on 2020-08-09 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Fastest PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD: Sabrent Rocket Gen4
If and only if you have a motherboard that supports PCI Express 4.0, then this is a suitable SSD. At this point, only AMD X570 motherboards equipped with a Ryzen 3000-series CPU (or 3rd-gen Threadripper) support the interface in the consumer space. As of the mid-2020, all PCIe 4.0-capable SSDs including the Rocket Gen4 are based on the same Phison PS5016-E16 controller and 3D TLC NAND combo, resulting in roughly the same performance. The other, nearly identical drives (among a few others) are:
PCIe 4.0 SSDs are known to run quite hot compared to their PCIe 3.0 counterparts, so unless you have a motherboard with an included heat spreader (often supplied with X570 boards), this might be a useful addition to a Gen4 SSD. The Corsair MP600 is available with or without a heat spreader, as is the Sabrent Rocket Gen4, while the Seagate Firecuda 520 ships without one. Some drives, such as the XPG Gammix S50, are only available with a heat spreader. Bear in mind that these heatsinks add to the devices’ dimensions and will usually not fit in a laptop.
When combined with the right motherboard, you will get exceptional sequential transfer rates of up to 5 GB/s with any of the above Gen4 drives. Again, this is only with a compatible motherboard/CPU combo – otherwise, these drives will max out at PCIe 3.0 speeds, or about 3,500 MB/s.
Check prices (Rocket Gen4): Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Best PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD: Samsung 970 PRO
No single drive will take home the crown as the fastest M.2. SSD in every benchmark or practical use case. However, our choice as the best general performer in the PCIe 3.0 segment in the second quarter of 2020 is the MLC-based Samsung 970 PRO – a drive that still tops many performance charts in the M.2 PCI Express category.
It’s also considered one of the most reliable. Samsung’s performance and reliability track record in the SSD segment has been almost flawless for nearly a decade, so this drive is a very comfortable recommendation.
The 970 PRO comes with Samsung’s proprietary controller and MLC chips, as well as an excellent endurance rating of 1,200 TBW (1TB) or 600 TBW (512GB). Unfortunately, the 970 PRO is only available in two capacities: 512 GB and 1 TB, which limits your choices. It may also be a questionable choice when looking at the performance/$ equation because the cost per GB is well above average. Samsung announced the PCIe 4.0-enabled Samsung 980 PRO at CES 2020, but it is not yet available at the time of writing.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Read more about the 970 PRO in our SSD database >>
Best Value/Performance (PCIe 3.0): Samsung 970 EVO Plus
This will ultimately depend on today’s prices for the best M.2 SSDs on the market (scroll down for a more comprehensive list). Nevertheless, Samsung’s 970 EVO Plus is much more affordable than the PRO but very close in terms of raw performance. Although it doesn’t use premium MLC NAND, this drive is among the very best – and will likely remain so until we see more competition in the PCIe 4.0 segment.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Read more about the 970 EVO Plus in our SSD database >>
On the same note, also consider the more affordable yet well-rounded PCIe 3.0 Sabrent Rocket which offers an attractive mix of value and performance. This drive comes with a Phison E12 controller and Toshiba TLC NAND – a high-end combo that puts it nearly on par with the 970 EVO but at a significantly lower cost.
12 of the Fastest M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs in 2020
There are alternatives to all of the above of course. Some of which could be better options if the price is right, so don’t stop reading just yet. In the following list we’ve put together some of the best-performing, recently released drives. They are ordered by sequential performance first, random second. Because of the drives’ different controllers and memory types, these numbers are only an indication of actual performance.
| # | Name | Max. sequential read/write (MB/s) | 4K random read/write performance (IOPS) | Endurance rating (terabytes written) | Check Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Sabrent Rocket Gen4 (1TB) | 5000/4400 | 750K/750K | 1800 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 2 |  | Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 (1TB) | 5000/4400 | 750K/700K | 1800 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 3 |  | Corsair MP600 Gen4 (1TB) | 4950/4250 | 680K/600K | 1800 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 4 |  | Samsung 970 PRO (1TB) | 3500/2700 | 500K/500K | 1200 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 5 | | Samsung 970 EVO PLUS (1TB) | 3500/3300 | 600K/550K | 600 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 6 |  | Adata XPG SX8200 Pro (1TB) | 3500/3000 | 390K/380K | 640 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 7 |  | PNY XLR8 CS3030 (1TB) | 3500/3000 | N/A | 1665 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 8 |  | HP EX950 (1TB) | 3500/2900 | 410K/370K | 650 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 9 |  | Corsair Force MP510 (960 GB) | 3480/3000 | 280K/700K | 720 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 10 |  | WD Black SN750 (1TB) | 3430/3000 | 515K/560K | 600 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 11 |  | Intel SSD 760p (1TB) | 3230/1625 | 340K/275K | 576 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
| 12 |  | Intel Optane SSD 800P (118GB) | 1450/640 | 250K/140K | 365 TBW | Amazon Newegg Amazon UK |
Remember that the Gen4 SSDs on top of the list requires a PCI Express 4.0-capable motherboard (X570 chipset) to run at full speed. In other words: don’t pay extra for a Gen4 SSD unless you own a suitable motherboard or plan to upgrade soon.
High-End Alternative: Intel Optane 800p
The last drive on our list is also a high-end option. Although its sequential performance might not sound like much, Intel’s Optane 800p is faster than all other M.2 SSDs in certain areas. Its extremely low latency makes random performance at low queue depths particularly good, which is an advantage for a system drive. The reason why it’s hard to compare it with other SSDs is that it uses Intel’s proprietary 3D XPoint memory instead of ‘normal’ NAND Flash.
Unfortunately, it also comes with a much higher cost/GB than competing drives and is only available in two tiny capacities – 58 GB and 118 GB. Read more about it here, or head straight to AnandTech for the most detailed review online.
Check prices: Amazon, Newegg, Amazon UK
Which is the Best M.2 SSD for Gaming?
For the average user, the difference between an SSD and a hard drive in terms of user experience is very clearly noticeable. The effect of shifting from one type of SSD to another will not be nearly as dramatic.
All storage-intensive tasks that move lots of files around will be affected by an SSDs capability. However, a faster SSD will not necessarily shorten loading times in games by large amounts. Here’s an interesting test from the web, comparing an M.2 PCIe SSD (970 Pro) versus an older 2.5″ SATA SSD (plus a mechanical hard drive) when loading various games:
Here’s a summary of the data:
| Game | Loading from HDD | Loading from 2.5" SATA SSD | Loading from 970 Pro (PCIe/NVMe) | Decrease/Increase, (NVMe Vs SATA) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Destiny 2 | 45s | 31s | 29s | -6% |
| Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | 71s | 27s | 21s | -22% |
| DOOM | 65s | 49s | 47s | -4% |
| Civilization 6 | 27s | 18s | 17s | -6% |
| Far Cry 5 | 25s | 10s | 11s | +10% |
| Path of Exile | 23s | 3s | 3s | +0% |
| World of Warcraft | 36s | 7s | 6s | -14% |
| Skyrim Special Edition | 20s | 9s | 12s | +33% |
| Witcher 3 | 13s | 7s | 5s | -29% |
| Total | 325s | 161s | 151s | -6% |
Source: YouTube user Alexandr iuneWind
With these results in mind, it is probably safe to assume that a comparison of individual high-end M.2 PCIe SSDs will result in small differences as far as gaming is concerned. The usual price/performance calculation will serve you well. Of course, all seconds saved add up to minutes and hours in the long run, so a fast M.2 NVMe SSD is still a key component in a high-end PC. But in most cases, you should not expect the sort of radical performance gains that you see when coming from a traditional hard drive.
Will it Work in my Laptop/Desktop PC?
For the listed drives to work with your computer, it must have the proper slot and support for PCIe/NVMe. But there may be exceptions: Even without an M.2 slot on your (desktop) motherboard, you may still be able to use one in a full-size PCIe x4 slot using an adapter. But if you want to run your OS from the drive, your motherboard must still support booting from PCIe, which is no guarantee with older motherboards.
All recent, high-end ATX-size motherboards, on the other hand, include at least one M.2 slot and will be able to run a modern SSD at PCIe 3.0 speeds at a minimum. With an older board, you might not be so lucky. In any event, it’s always best to check the manual before buying a new drive.
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, as well as recent motherboards, will have to 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:
- 2230
- 2242
- 2260
- 2280
- 22110
Not all motherboards – and much less all laptops – can accommodate the longest cards and some might not even support the common 2280 size (the format used by most of the drives listed above). 22110 drives are however very rare.
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.
Yes, it really is a bit confusing, but fortunately, M.2 2280 is the most common standard by far, so it’s actually hard to get it wrong. But just to be safe:
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 really isn’t. If you are building a high-end PC based on a Z170, Z270, B350/B450, X370/X470 chipset, it will likely have an M-key slot. And if so, most of the popular M-key or B+M-key drives will work. But there are a few 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.
Speaking for myself, a primary 1 TB SSD is enough to hold the stuff I use on a regular basis. That includes the OS, all work-related apps, and a few games – basically what I want quick access to on a regular basis. The rest is mostly distributed on some affordable terabytes of hard drive space.
What capacity you need is always a personal question. 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 hard drives for the rest. However, when looking at the price/performance ratio (performance is usually improved in larger capacities), 240 or 256 GB drives offer a much more attractive entry-level price point. If you want to install any larger number of games, 1 TB should be considered a minimum size.
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 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 dozens of gigabytes, so there is no simple answer. On the other hand, loading games from a slower device (but preferably still an SSD) is still a viable option, as seen above.
5 TB/s ?
I WISH!!!
Thanks Brad for spotting the typo! Changed it.
There will probably be another few years before these things are a thousand times as fast… 🙂
/Jesper
All the links for Samsung EVO (and what I can find online) are for PCIe Gen3 drives, not Gen4
As of now, there are still no Samsung EVO (or PRO) M.2 drives on the market that run on Gen4. The Gen4 Samsung 980 PRO was announced at CES this year, but I’ve seen nothing of a release date yet.
See:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15352/ces-2020-samsung-980-pro-pcie-40-ssd-makes-an-appearance
Your specs are all wrong, for chart under heading, “”12 of the Fastest M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs in 2020″” Please update!
They should be this: (consider adding Gen3 for comparison)
Gigabyte Aorus PCIe Gen4 (500GB) – 5000/4400
Gigabyte Aorus PCIe Gen3 (500GB) – 3500/2500
Sabrent Rocket PCIe Gen4 (500GB) – 5000/2500
Sabrent Rocket PCIe Gen3 (500GB) – 3400/2500
ADD:
Corsair MP510 PCIe Gen3 (480GB) – 3480/3000
All the rest seemed okay…
Thanks for your comment. I believe that you are mistakenly referring to the read/write specs for the 1TB+ models, which are higher than the 500GB ones listed here (write speeds in particular).
That said, it would make more sense to compare the 1TB drives, which is probably the most common capacity these days. I’ll change this in the next update.
Dont know how the Seagate NVME PCIe 4.0 Firecuda 1TB didnt make this list. It’s the fastest by far in real world file transfer speeds. Blew the Sabrent away in a side by side comparison video I saw. They all have the same Phison controller but Seagate uses its own proprietary firmware or something.
The Addlink S90 should be included on the list near the top if not the number one spot. It performs even faster than what it advertises.
Corsair MP600 has a TBW of 3600 not 1800
https://www.corsair.com/ww/en/Categories/Products/Storage/M-2-SSDs/Force-Series%E2%84%A2-Gen-4-PCIe-NVMe-M-2-SSD/p/CSSD-F2000GBMP600#tab-tech-specs
3600 TBW is for the 2TB model. 1TB drives are compared in the table and the Corsair MP600 1TB offers half of the 2TB so 1800 TBW.
“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 hard drives for the rest. ”
Price difference of 128GB and 240GB is only ~10 euros so for normal user there is no point to get only 128 GB. Going 128 GB needs special conditions.
A very good point, thanks. I’ve updated the article to reflect this.
This article was really helpful. I want to buy an M.2 SSD for my Acer TravelMate P449-G2-M-50S9 (Part Number NX.VFUAL.001) but I wanted to know which ones were compatible with my device. Is any M.2 PCIe 2280 going to work with my laptop? I was trying to buy some models which didn’t appear in userbenchmark so I’m not completly sure if they’ll work or not.
For example I was wondering if some of these are compatible with my laptop:
Kingston SA2000M8/250G 250GB
XPG SX6000 PCIE GEN3X2 M.2 2280
SSD 256GB SEAGATE M.2 2280 BARRACUDA 510
ADATA SWORDFISH PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for reading! It’s difficult to give advice for specific laptop models, but if yours has an identical motherboard as the one tested here: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-TravelMate-P449-G2-M-i5-7200U-FHD-IPS-Laptop-Review.239754.0.html (which in this case is equipped with an Intel 600p
… then yes, any of those M.2 models should theoretically work (with the possible exception of the Adata Swordfish, which has a heatsink that might not fit).
Of the drives you mention, the Barracuda 510 is the strongest performer. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seagate-barracuda-510-ssd,6150.html
Thanks! In this case my laptop has an HDD and the model is Pavo_Grus_SK
Ok, I couldn’t find any info about your specific model. However, when quickly looking it up I did notice that others have been asking about this issue on the Acer forums, dealing with the P449-G2-M in general. https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/583639/acer-travelmate-tmp449-g2-m-additional-harddisc
You are just quoting advertised speeds and that is completely misleading. I can tell you, Samsung drives don’t perform anywhere near the advertised speeds. I have tested 21 drives. The random speeds are particularly poor. Overpriced trash. I expect all other drives will experience similar speed differences. What really matters is real world performance, and I’ve yet to see a NVMe drive that performs anywhere near the marketed speeds.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I agree that max. sequential speeds don’t paint the whole picture but they still tend to be quite accurate when tested with e.g. ATTO. As for the Samsung drives, I’ve also tested most of them since the 830 and they have usually been among the best in most areas (except when compared to the Intel Optane drives in terms of latency/random data).
Thanks , very helpful article
what about Toshiba like :Toshiba XG5-P KXG50PNV2T04 2TB Internal M.2 2280 NVMe Solid State Drive (SSD)
This wasn’t included in comparison, my Dell XPS came originally equipped with same Toshiba but 1TB, I am trying to upgrade to 2TB, I was thinking between Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB , Sabrent Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance Solid State Drive (SB-ROCKET-2TB)and Toshiba XG5-P KXG50PNV2T04 2TB, what would you advise ?
Thanks , appreciated
Thanks, Walid!
Your current Toshiba XG5-P is a high-end OEM SSD, so it’s probably safe to say that you won’t experience any real-world difference outside of synthetic benchmarks with either the Samsung or the Sabrent (or a 2TB XG5-P).
The Samsung EVO Plus is a great drive that performs well in almost every area, but personally I would have opted for one of the others at this time due to the large price difference and small real-world performance difference.
Here’s a review that compares the Sabrent with the Samsung in the 2TB capacities: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/9434/sabrent-rocket-nvme-2tb-ssd/index.html (I haven’t seen any review of the XG5-P yet).
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