The ADATA GAMMIX S50 Lite 2TB SSD Review: Mainstream PCIe Gen4
by Billy Tallis on April 30, 2021 8:00 AM ESTConclusion
The ADATA XPG Gammix S50 Lite is the first SSD of its kind: a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD aimed at the mid-range mainstream segment of the consumer SSD market. Most Gen4 SSDs on the market were designed to go after the high end space, though the earliest such examples have now effectively been pushed down to mid-range by the arrival of a second wave of even faster Gen4 drives. By aiming for a more mainstream (and less expensive) role, the S50 Lite doesn't even try to make full use of the bandwidth offered by PCIe Gen4, and at its best it can only use a little bit of the extra speed over PCIe Gen3.
In fact, the S50 Lite is best understood by almost completely ignoring the fact that it supports PCIe Gen4; that feature can be viewed as simply a side-effect of the S50 Lite being a fairly modern design, so of course it should support the current IO standards. At heart, the S50 Lite is designed to be an affordable mainstream drive with the same general performance that required a high-end drive two or three years ago.
The S50 Lite is built around Silicon Motion's SM2267, their first PCIe Gen4 controller and the smaller, cheaper member of what is planned to be a broader family of Gen4 SSD controllers. We had originally hoped that SM2267 would allow drives like the S50 Lite to follow in the footsteps of the SK hynix Gold P31, bringing the benefits of a thoroughly modern 4-channel NVMe SSD to a broader audience. But the SM2267 only gets halfway there: it provides most of the performance we expect from a high-end 8-channel Gen3 drive, but since it's still a 28nm part we don't see the astounding power efficiency advantages that SK hynix delivered.
The S50 Lite also doesn't include the full amount of DRAM that high-end NVMe drives use, which hurts its performance on some heavier workloads. But that's more acceptable these days, since users with such workloads should be moving on to today's high-end Gen4 drives. (Side note: if ADATA is equipping the 1TB model with the same 1GB of DRAM that our 2TB sample gets, then the 1TB model probably avoids some of these performance pitfalls.) The result is that the SM2267 controller should be seen more as a reduced-cost replacement for the SM2262 family, and drives like the S50 Lite are aiming for a slightly lower market position than something like the SK hynix Gold P31.
Given the choice between the S50 Lite's nominal support for PCIe Gen4, or a well-rounded Gen3 drive, the answer is clear. Gen4 support on its own does not make a drive better, and there are plenty for Gen3 drives that offer better real-world performance and efficiency than the S50 Lite. In addition to the relative paucity of DRAM, the S50 Lite also suffers from small SLC cache sizes when the drive is mostly full. The fact that the S50 Lite supports a PCIe Gen4 host interface is almost completely irrelevant: at best it's barely able to exceed Gen3 performance, and it's unlikely to be used in systems providing a Gen4 x2 slot (which are likely to use even cheaper SSDs). It's good to see that SMI can ship a Gen4-capable controller, but the high-end SM2264 controller that we're still waiting for is the one that actually needs the Gen4 interface.
| 480-512 GB | 960 GB-1 TB | 2 TB | |
| ADATA XPG Gammix S50 Lite Gen3, 4ch TLC |
$139.99 (14¢/GB) |
$235.99 (12¢/GB) |
|
| Inland Premium Gen3, TLC |
$62.99 (12¢/GB) |
$114.99 (11¢/GB) |
$236.99 (12¢/GB) |
| Mushkin Pilot-E Gen3, TLC |
$67.99 (14¢/GB) |
$114.99 (11¢/GB) |
$219.99 (11¢/GB) |
| Samsung 970 EVO Plus Gen3, TLC |
$79.99 (16¢/GB) |
$164.99 (16¢/GB) |
$310.05 (16¢/GB) |
| SK hynix Gold P31 PCIe Gen3, 4ch TLC |
$74.99 (15¢/GB) |
$134.99 (13¢/GB) |
|
| WD Black SN750 Gen3, TLC |
$69.99 (14¢/GB) |
$144.80 (14¢/GB) |
$309.99 (15¢/GB) |
| High-End PCIe Gen4: | |||
| ADATA XPG Gammix S70 | $179.99 (18¢/GB) |
$329.99 (16¢/GB) |
|
| Silicon Power US70 | $159.99 (16¢/GB) |
$319.99 (16¢/GB) |
|
| Samsung 980 PRO | $129.99 (26¢/GB) |
$199.99 (20¢/GB) |
|
| Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus | $199.98 (20¢/GB) |
$399.98 (20¢/GB) |
|
| WD Black SN850 | $129.99 (26¢/GB) |
$199.99 (20¢/GB) |
$379.99 (19¢/GB) |
The pricing for the Gammix S50 Lite is unimpressive but also unsurprising. The drive has a bit of bling and can advertise PCIe Gen4 support, so it ends up priced close to the Gen3 drives from top-tier brands like SK hynix and WD, though with less of a premium on the 2TB capacity. It is at least clearly cheaper than the high-end Gen4 drives with 8-channel controllers, even the older Phison E16 models. Still, there are dozens of brands selling Phison E12S or SM2262EN-based Gen3 drives that will have equivalent or better real-world performance to the S50 Lite, but are more affordable. The cheapest of those models come with shorter 3-year warranties, which may not be worth the savings to some consumers.
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Qasar - Monday, May 3, 2021 - link
" Not a fan of freedom of speech/expression/press? " that what it is, its just his bias opinion, for some reason, he hates QLC, and seems to go to great lengths to say how bad it is.Linustechtips12#6900xt - Monday, May 3, 2021 - link
I love seeing the fights in the comment sections, honestly makes my day lolFunBunny2 - Monday, May 3, 2021 - link
" " Not a fan of freedom of speech/expression/press? " "a frequent complaint, esp. the Lunatic Right. the text of the US Constitution *only* promises that the Damn Gummint cannot, arbitrarily, shut you up. they can if your calling for insurrection, for instance. and it says nothing about what a private entity can do. you remember seeing signs on retail doorways - 'no solicitation allowed'? that means union organizers can't say what they want on or near the premises. it also means that Big Bad Tech can monitor and quash speech/text they find objectionable; no reason need be given. the list goes on forever.
GeoffreyA - Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - link
Qasar, I think he's making a valid complaint, and fears, like many of us do, that Q will become the standard soon and T the costlier "pro" variant. QLC began with a dubious reputation and so we're resistant to its replacing something we trust. For one thing to replace something else, it must be better, not equal or weaker. Q's argument is better size and price; but, as it stands, doesn't seem to be delivering much in those areas, yet wants to usurp the throne from TLC.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - link
'Qasar, I think he's making a valid complaint, and fears, like many of us do, that Q will become the standard soon'Just wait for PLC. It's coming, apparently.
romrunning - Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - link
I'm inclined to agree also. I've seen the transition from SLC to MLC to TLC, and I have no doubt that soon QLC will replace even TLC (at least for consumers). TLC wasn't too far a drop-off performance-wise from MLC, but QLC is quite a bit less.I don't doubt that most consumers won't be able to see the difference, but I'm disappointed that we're going down the spec-tree instead of up (a lower baseline now), primarily because the mfgs want to save money.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - link
It's amusing to see how, despite the many comments condemning QLC from other posters on this site in very recent articles, I am suddenly being singled out.Ad hominem won't change the facts:
Every dollar spent on QLC is a dollar that reduces TLC production, raising TLC prices by increasing TLC scarcity. The same thing happened with MLC.
QLC has double the voltage states for only 30% more density. That's diminished returns.
TLC was made much more viable via the change from planar to 3D production. Remember how the Samsung 840 (planar TLC) was so unstable from voltage drift that the only solution was a kludge: re-writing the data again and again? That very serious symptom of a very troubling problem (due to the increase in voltage states in going from MLC to TLC) was solved via the introduction of 3D lithography. Where is the silver bullet for QLC? It has been produced in 3D from the beginning and yet its flaws are still quite evident.
Samus - Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - link
I'm kinda with Banshee here, spreading nonsense like this is not just ignorant and counterintuitive, but dangerous. People stupid opinions can be protected by free speech but outright lies shouldn't be.GeoffreyA - Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - link
"protected by free speech but outright lies shouldn't"Like any principle taken too far, free speech can certainly be abused, and sow lies, discord, or hatred. That's why it's got to be bound by other rules.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, May 6, 2021 - link
Free speech is a myth. All speech is subjected to censorship, including by the mind of the person producing it. The key here is that echo chambers (which aren't difficult to find on tech websites like Ars and Slashdot) are not the only solution to having community feedback.