— The Crucial T705 is a slightly improved version of the T700. Both are among the first PCIe 5.0 SSDs, offering peak data rates double those of PCIe 4.0. The T705 can reach staggering burst sequential read and write speeds of 15 and 12 GB/s. However, out of cache performance still lies within PCIe 4.0 limits so the T705 doesn’t have a PCIe 5.0 advantage during sustained workloads. The T705 offers around a 5% effective speed advantage over the T700 which is not justifiable at current prices (1TB = $180, 2TB = $300, 4TB = $500). While it may appeal to users looking for almost unparalleled burst performance, most users won’t notice much improvement compared to the WD Black SN850X because of other bottlenecks in a typical system.
— The Crucial T700 is one of the first PCIe 5.0 SSDs, offering peak data rates double those of PCIe 4.0. The T700 can reach staggering burst sequential read and write speeds of 15 and 12 GB/s. However, out of cache performance still lies within PCIe 4.0 limits so the T700 doesn’t have a PCIe 5.0 advantage during sustained workloads. At current prices (1TB = $140, 2TB = $270, 4TB = $370) the T700 may be of interest to users looking for almost unparalleled burst performance, though most users won’t notice much improvement compared to the WD Black SN850X because of other bottlenecks in in a typical system.
— The Samsung 990 Pro has a strong consumer performance profile. It offers burst read speeds of 3 GB/s and burst write speeds of 5 GB/s. The 990 Pro also offers respectable out of cache performance. At current prices (1TB $120 USD, 2TB $165 USD and 4TB $320 USD) the Samsung 990 Pro offers worse value for money than the WD Black SN850X. Samsung’s superior SSD technology allowed them to dominate the consumer market since SSDs became mainstream in 2010. However, in today’s market, their technology no longer justifies a price premium.
— The WD Black SN850X has a superb consumer performance profile. As well as offering solid burst speeds of 5 GB/s, the SN850X also offers respectable out of cache performance. At current prices (1TB $90 USD, 2TB $145 USD and 4TB $290 USD) the WD Black SN850X is our top value pick at every capacity.