Micron Unveils 4600 PCIe 5 SSD To Turbocharge PCs With Speeds Up To 14.5GB/s
It took a minute, but Micron has released what it is calling its "first Gen5 client SSD," which primarily takes aim at OEM system builders. With sequential speeds rated at up to 14.5GB/s, it's the fastest SSD in Micron's stable, though the qualifier here is that it previously released multiple PCIe 5.0 SSDs under its Crucial brand, the newest and fastest being the Crucial T705 we reviewed a year ago.
The 4600, however, is the first PCIe 5.0 model to target OEMs under the Micron banner. So even though laptops and desktops might see a price hike due to tariffs (as Acer's CEO recently confirmed), at least some of the systems in the pipeline could deliver a storage boost.
For the average user, a PCIe 5.0 SSD isn't going to deliver a night and day difference versus a PCIe 4.0 SSD. However, there are instances where faster storage can make a tangible difference, with Micron leaning on the local AI inferencing angle.
"With the 4600 NVMe SSD, users can load large language models in less than one second, enabling PC experiences in data-intensive applications, especially for AI," said Prasad Alluri, vice president and general manager for Client Storage at Micron. "As AI inference runs locally on the PC, the transition to Gen5 SSDs addresses the increased need for higher performance and energy efficiency."
Micron's also leaning heavily into the use of its 9th generation (or G9) triple level cell (TLC) NAND flash memory. The 4600 is the second client SSD from Micron to incorporate G9 TLC NAND, the other being the Micron 2560. According to Micron, its G9 TCL is the fastest TCL NAND on the planet.
The drive is being offered in four capacities, including 4TB, 2TB, 1TB, and 512GB. Both the 4TB and 2TB models are rated to deliver up to 14.5GB/s and 12GB/s of sequential read and write performance, respectively, as well as 2.1 million IOPS for both 4K random reads and writes.
The 1TB model, meanwhile, features the same sequential read rating and 11.5GB/s for sequential writes, along with 1.6 million IOPS for 4K rand reads and 2.1 million IOPS for 4K random writes.
Finally, the 512GB model is rated to deliver up to 10.3GB/s of sequential read performance, 5.78GB/s for sequential writes, 800,000 IOPS for 4K random reads, an 1.2 million IOPS for 4K random writes.
"AMD is excited to collaborate on the validation of the Micron 4600 NVMe SSD with our latest Ryzen family of processors," said Joe Macri, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Compute and Graphics at AMD. "The Micron 4600 NVMe SSD is anticipated to deliver exceptional performance and a best-in-class user experience for the most demanding professional applications and high-speed gaming."
Micron's also working with Intel and Lenovo to validate and qualify its 4600 SSD, which is currently sampling to OEMs.
