Our Verdict
The Solidgm P44 Pro is the fastest PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD we’ve tested when it comes to game load times, and it's a speed demon in other tests as well. You can get close to the same performance for less money elsewhere, but the Solidigm P44 Pro largely justifies its higher pricing with its fast pace.
- Excellent sequential speeds
- Competitive price
- Great game load performance
- Not as cheap as similar PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs
- Other SSDs have higher endurance ratings
- Heatsink required to prevent throttling
The Solidigm P44 Pro is the latest flagship PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD from Intel’s former NAND division, which is now owned by SK Hynix. We can’t imagine it’s been easy for SK Hynix to reinvent this storage division, especially in a crowded market that’s seeing reduced prices for the latest PCIe 4.0 SSDs while we wait for the first PCIe 5.0 SSDs to land. However, the P44 Pro boasts some mightily impressive specs for the money.
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It’s a speedy drive, and one that’s fighting for a spot on our best SSD for gaming guide. To find out how the P44 Pro stacks up against the best of the rest, we’ve put it through our benchmark suite to see whether its performance justifies its price.
Specs
The Solidigm P44 Pro specs list is:
| Capacities | 512GB, 1TB, 2TB |
| Controller | SK Hynix Aries |
| Endurance rating | 750TBW (1TB), 1,200TBW (2TB) |
| Warranty | Five years |
| NAND | TLC |
Performance
The Solidigm P44 Pro’s performance has the edge on its competitors. While WD’s Black SN850X dips down from a claimed write speed of 6,600MB/s to 6,300MB/s when you drop from 2TB to 1TB, the P44 Pro maintains its claimed 6,500MB/s for both capacities, only falling to 4,700MB/s when you get down to the 512GB model.
There’s no heatsink-equipped model, unlike the Black SN850X, so you’ll need to use your motherboard’s cooling or purchase a third-party heatsink, but many new motherboards come with at least one M.2 heatsink these days.
If you don’t use a heatsink, the Solidigm gets pretty hot after a minute or two under full load to throttle. With a heatsink attached, though, the Solidigm P44 Pro CrystalDiskMark speeds were bang on, hitting a 7,200MB/s read speed and 6,558MB/s write speed, which is up there with the likes of the Samsung 990 Pro, Kingston Fury Renegade, and WD Black SN850X.
Its random 4K 32-queue-depth 16-thread results of 5,900MB/s for reads and 5,092MB/s for writes are also either in first or second place compared to the aforementioned competitors. The same also goes for its single-queue-depth single-thread performance of 343MB/s for reads and 87MB/s for writes.
However, the Solidigm’s best performance was seen in the game access times in 3DMark’s storage suite, with by far the quickest times of all the SSDs previously mentioned, along with the fastest load read speeds.
For example, when loading Battlefield 5, it hit 1,367MB/s with an access time of 56μs, compared to 1,080MB/s and 67μs for the WD Black SN850X, 971MB/s and 77μs for the Samsung 990 Pro, and 856MB/s plus 88μs for the Kingston Fury Renegade.
Price
The Solidigm 44 Pro price isn’t cheap, but it’s competitive for the fast performance on offer. SSD pricing is critical at the moment, given that real-world differences in speed are often indistinguishable for many tasks, and the P44 Pro is right on the money, sitting at $220 (£210) for a 2TB model and $130 (£115) for 1TB, while the 512GB model will set you back $80 (£85).
WD’s Black SN850X costs a little more for 2TB and a bit less for 1TB, while both SSDs have the same endurance ratings, at 750 terabytes written (TBW) for the 1TB model we’re reviewing here, which rises to 1,200TBW for the 2TB model.
Verdict
The keen prices for the Solidigm P44 Pro range are welcome and this drive series ultimately offers slightly better bang for your buck than the WD Black SN850X, and it also performed much better than the Kingston Fury Renegade in the 3DMark game performance tests too. However, the Kingston SSD is also much cheaper, plus it has a higher TBW endurance rating.
Most of us are unlikely to get close to the P44 Pro’s write limits, though, so it’s still a great buy for maximum performance, whether you need 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB capacities, as long as you pair it with a heatsink. For those looking for slightly better value, the Kingston Fury Renegade is cheaper at every capacity, but the Solidigm P44 Pro is a fantastic speed demon for not much more cash.
If you’ve not fitted an M.2 SSD before, make sure you also read our full guide on how to install an SSD, where we take you through the whole process, including fitting a heatsink.