Micron Releases Fastest Mini SSD For Gaming Handhelds That You Can Actually Buy
Micron has just added a new M.2 2230 solid state drive (SSD) under its Crucial brand, saying that it's the "industry's fastest 2230 Gen4 consumer SSD," but is it really? I did a double take when reading that statement as the rated sequential read speed comes close to, but does not surpass, that of IRDM's Pro Nano SSD that I wrote about two months ago. However, there is an important caveat. Two, actually.
First, IRDM's Pro Nano SSD is, to my knowledge, not actually available to purchase, at least not in the United States. I can't find it listed at Amazon or Newegg, or any place else for that matter. According to the rated specs, IRDM's miniature SSD can hit up to 7,300MB/s of sequential read and 6,000MB/s of sequential write performance in 2TB and 1TB capacities, while the 512GB model is rated for 5,100MB/s and 4,600MB/s for reads and writes, respectively.
Meanwhile, Micron's new Crucial P310 is being offered in 2TB (CT2000P310SSD2) and 1TB (CT1000P310SSD2) capacities, both of which are rated to reach 7,100MB/s for sequential reads and 6,000MB/s for sequential writes. Micron's also claiming 1 million IOPS of random read performance, which is higher than the 750,000 (2TB and 1TB) and 780,000 (512GB) IOPS that IRDM advertises.
That could be behind Micron's "industry fastest" claim as well (and is the second caveat), especially since 4K random read/write is typically more important than sequential performance in workloads like games, which is where the Crucial P310 is taking aim. Specifically, at gaming handhelds like Valve's Steam Deck and the ASUS ROG Ally, as well as gaming laptops.
"Today’s contemporary games are storage- and performance-hungry, and this is especially true for handheld gamers who want to be able to quickly access all their favorite games at their fingertips," said Jonathan Weech, senior director of product marketing for Micron’s Commercial Products Group. "We’ve built our Crucial P310 2230 Gen4 SSD to satisfy this need for speed and more capacity, providing a dynamic, power-efficient SSD that allows gamers to build their dream gaming libraries, load multiworld games faster and extend battery life for a richer gaming experience on the go."
What about pricing? Micron's Crucial P310 SSD is available now at Amazon priced at $114.99 for 1TB and $214.99 for 2TB.
Those figures represent a premium for the shorted M.2 2230 form factor versus the standard sized M.2 2280 form factor. For example, Micron's own 1TB Crucial T500 can be found for $89.99 at Amazon, and the 2TB model for $138.99.
