Kioxia's Exceria Plus G4 2TB Solid-State Drive Evaluation: A secure yet unremarkable storage device
The Kioxia Exceria Plus G4, a mid-range PCIe 5.0 SSD, has been making waves in the tech world due to its competitive performance and cost-cutting measures. Let's take a closer look at how it stacks up against some of its contemporaries.
The Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 shares the same hardware as the Corsair MP700 Elite, but it uses older flash technology. This doesn't necessarily mean it lags behind, as it competes effectively with the MP700 Elite in various benchmark tests. However, in the PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark, the MP700 Elite comes out on top.
Another competitor, the Crucial P510, uses the same controller as the Exceria Plus G4 but swaps out the Kioxia TLC flash for Micron. In terms of power consumption, the Exceria Plus G4 is more efficient than the P510 but less efficient than the MP700 Elite.
The testing setup for the Exceria Plus G4 includes an Intel Core i9-12900K CPU, an Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero motherboard, and other high-end components. When tested on an Alder Lake platform with background applications disabled, the Exceria Plus G4 performed well in the DiskBench copy test, scoring above the P510 and close to the MP700 Elite.
The Exceria Plus G4 also performs well in the 3DMark Storage Benchmark, edging out the Micron-fuelled P510 and lining up nicely with the MP700 Elite. It's worth noting that the Exceria Plus G4 utilizes a write cache, which can absorb incoming data, but sustained write speeds may decrease once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the TLC or QLC flash.
When empty, the cache of the 2TB Plus G4 extends to over 435GB, and it can extend up to almost 700GB when converting 3-bit TLC flash to single-bit pSLC mode. Once the cache is saturated, the Plus G4 falls to a direct-to-TLC mode at 1.5 GB/s, which is a good speed and matches the MP700 Elite's steady state write speed.
The Exceria Plus G4 reaches a maximum temperature of 51°C during testing, making it a fantastic drive for laptops and other hot or confined environments. It's also a viable alternative for a last-minute build or project.
However, the Exceria Plus G4 is not recommended for the PlayStation 5 due to its performance being less than the recommended 5,500 MB/s of sequential read bandwidth. It's also not terribly exciting, but it's a good SSD - not everything has to be covered in liquid cooling and RGB.
Other high-end Gen 4 SSDs being compared to the Exceria Plus G4 include the Maxio MAP1602-based Silicon Power US75, the Phison E27T-based Sabrent Rocket 4, and the SMI SM2268XT2-based Kingston NV3. The Sandisk WD_Black SN8100 and the Acer Predator GM9000, both high-end PCIe 5.0 SSDs, cut costs by using older flash or no DRAM.
In conclusion, the Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 is a solid choice for those seeking a mid-range PCIe 5.0 SSD that offers good performance and cost-effectiveness. While it may not be the fastest SSD on the market, it's a reliable and efficient choice for many applications.
