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The Micron 4600 SSD is a dream come true for enthusiasts who want the highest level of storage performance without compromise.
Reasons to buy
+
Excellent all-around and sustained performance
+
Efficient for a high-end drive
Reasons to avoid
-
Weaker OEM warranty
-
No 8TB option
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
The Micron 4600 SSD will have storage lovers rejoicing. The most powerful SSD is here, and it doesn’t have to compromise with high power draw. Sporting the SMI SM2508 controller alongside new 276-layer Micron TLC NAND, the Micron 4600 does just about everything you’d want a drive to do, and it helps signal an era where fast PCIe 5.0 drives are viable for all users without the usual corresponding drawbacks. While not quite a feat of engineering, it is nevertheless a step in the right direction for a troubled SSD market that has seen its ups and downs. This is definitely an up.
The Micron 4600 is an OEM drive, so it’s not exactly something widely available at retail and it also suffers from a relatively weak warranty as a result. This is okay, as it still indicates that similar retail drives are on the horizon. Even when standing on its own, it’s a fantastic drive with top-tier performance and game-changing power efficiency for its performance level. While we’d like to see this hardware in an 8TB drive, for most people the existing capacity range is sufficient. It makes us eager to see if Samsung can deliver a counterblow with its 9100 Pro.
You might wonder why you would need a drive this fast. Micron is marketing the 4600 toward professional applications, including AI, which does imply the drive is a good choice for HEDT (high-end desktop). The offering of an encryption-capable SKU complements this nicely, especially for use in a high-end laptop. There’s no question it’s also more than capable for gaming well into the future, and its peak performance stands above its peers. A drive like this is still certainly a luxury, but its entrance onto the scene establishes a new bar for SSDs as PCIe 5.0 storage comes into its own.
Micron 4600 Specifications
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Product
512GB
1TB
2TB
4TB
Pricing
Row 0 - Cell 1
Row 0 - Cell 2
Row 0 - Cell 3
Row 0 - Cell 4
Form Factor
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
Interface / Protocol
PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0c
PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0c
PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0c
PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0c
Controller
SMI SM2508
SMI SM2508
SMI SM2508
SMI SM2508
DRAM
LPDDR4
LPDDR4
LPDDR4
LPDDR4
Flash Memory
276-Layer Micron TLC
276-Layer Micron TLC
276-Layer Micron TLC
276-Layer Micron TLC
Sequential Read
10,300 MB/s
14,500 MB/s
14,500 MB/s
14,500 MB/s
Sequential Write
5,780 MB/s
11,500 MB/s
12,000 MB/s
12,000 MB/s
Random Read
800K
1,600K
2,100K
2,100K
Random Write
1,200K
2,100K
2,100K
2,100K
Security
TCG Opal 2.02/Pyrite 2.01
Row 10 - Cell 2
Row 10 - Cell 3
Row 10 - Cell 4
Endurance (TBW)
300TB
600TB
1,200TB
1,600TB
Part Number
MTFDLBA512THJ-1BP15-AB-YY
MTFDLBA1T0THJ-1BP15-AB-YY
MTFDLBA2T0THJ-1BP15-AB-YY
MTFDLBA4T0THJ-1BP15-AB-YY
Warranty
3-Year
Row 13 - Cell 2
Row 13 - Cell 3
Row 13 - Cell 4
The Micron 4600 is available at 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, with no 8TB listed at the time of review. That last capacity is a bit of a holy grail as it’s been difficult to reach, especially at a good price — though the WD Black SN850X made a decent effort. It’s hard to hold the lack of an 8TB SKU against a drive, but with Samsung announcing that the upcoming 9100 Pro will be available at 8TB, drives in the Micron 4600’s class are under more pressure. We would recommend at least 2TB at this point either way, and that is also where the Micron 4600 hits peak performance.
In this case, that’s up to 14,500 / 12,000 MB/s for sequential reads and writes, and up to 2,100K IOPS for both random reads and writes. This is close to the ceiling for a PCIe 5.0 SSD, and you can rest assured that you are at the cutting-edge with a drive like this. The drive comes in two variants, with only one having hardware encryption as a self-encrypting drive (SED), so pay attention to that when buying. Micron backs the drive with an anemic but typical OEM warranty at three years with a standard 600TB of writes per TB capacity. This means it offers a higher drive writes per day (DWPD) rating as the warranty is shorter — except for the 4TB SKU, which is only rated for 400TBW per TB.
As this is a new OEM drive, direct pricing is not available at the time of review.
Micron 4600 Software and Accessories
Micron offers its Storage Executive software — for Windows, Linux, and ARM-based systems — for its SSDs. This goes for Crucials SSDs, too. The application is an SSD toolbox utilized for checking and testing SSDs, updating firmware, enabling various features such as encryption, and more. Less relevant for most users would be Micron’s Windows NVMe SSD driver, which isn’t necessary, and command line support that includes tools for ARM and VMWare ESXi systems.
Micron manages to pack in a little bit of everything into its single-sided package. This includes LPDDR4 DRAM (which is more efficient than DDR4) for metadata caching, as well as up to 4TB of fast TLC flash. This is managed with just two NAND packages, and that should make the drive easier to cool. This is good news for anyone who has concerns about hot-running PCIe 5.0 SSDs, especially if there is an intention to run the drive in an HTPC, laptop, or some other portable device. Our sample also has a connector for debugging, which does suggest a final move from the prototype phase we covered in our SMI SM2508 controller preview.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Our preview drive for SMI's new controller used Kioxia’s 162-Layer TLC flash (BiCS6). Micron’s secret sauce here is its new 276-Layer TLC flash. Crucial put the former generation, 232-Layer flash, to good use in the T500, T700, and T705, and that flash is used in most of the prominent PCIe 5.0 SSDs. The new generation of flash is not too different from the previous, still utilizing a six-plane layout with a general emphasis on density rather than raw performance. Previous generations were only four-plane, so they offered less bandwidth potential but in return were less complex. Micron has refined its 232-Layer flash for better performance here, particularly with regard to 4K read latency, which helps cement the architecture as being faster and not just denser.
In addition to this, the I/O rate was elevated from 2,400 MT/s to 3,600 MT/s. This isn’t super relevant to high-end drives with eight NAND channels from their controllers, but for budget drives, which are usually DRAM-less, I/O or bus speed is more important for getting the most out of just four channels. Still, this means that even at 1TB the Micron 4600 is fairly fleet of foot, which helps keep it relevant for more limited budgets.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
We’ve spoken much about the controller in our original preview, but it is worth reiterating that this is a full-fledged powerhouse that nevertheless is surprisingly efficient due to being crafted using TSMC's 7nm (N7) process node, rather than the older 12nm (12FFN) node. This doesn’t put existing PCIe 5.0 SSDs, like the Crucial T705, quite out to pasture, as power use from storage isn’t a huge concern on high-end desktops. It does, however, assert downward pricing pressure on existing drives, and it also opens the door to high-end performance on portable devices where the Phison E31T isn’t enough.
We also have results showing that, if you want to run it in a PCIe 4.0 slot (or in PCIe 4.0 mode at least), it can do even better. The 4600, via SMART, only pulls about 13% less power at full load than the T705, but in some power states it’s rated as much as 50% lower. This equates to real power efficiency improvements under load.
Where are these results? I'm asking because the PCIe 5.0 results, shown in the table, have it using quite a lot of power.
Do we expect a Crucial-branded retail version of essentially the same drive to be released, as well?
The 4TB endurance doesn't scale up proportionally from the 1TB and 2TB, is it using higher-capacity Flash chips with a smaller cell size in order to fit everything on a single side?
Where are these results? I'm asking because the PCIe 5.0 results, shown in the table, have it using quite a lot of power.
Do we expect a Crucial-branded retail version of essentially the same drive to be released, as well?
I'm not sure how they got missed, but I've updated the Quarch power charts with the PCIe 4.0 results. Do keep in mind that this is on a desktop without all the extra ASPM stuff enabled, so most SSDs can go into a "near zero" power mode when not actively in use. Under load, though, running a PCIe 5.0 drive in 4.0 mode cuts power draw a lot.
Aren't most 8tb units obscenely overpriced? It's usually better to get 2x 4tb units.
It's the classic chicken and egg scenario, plus if you want more than 8TB, like multiple 8TB drives, you eventually run out of M.2 slots (and PCIe x16 slots for expansion cards). We want to see 8TB become more mainstream, and the only way that happens is if more companies start taking the plunge. 2TB is now ubiquitous where it was considered very high-end several years back. 4TB is becoming increasingly common, and now we want to see the shift toward 8TB (or even 6TB) start ramping up. :)
The 4TB endurance doesn't scale up proportionally from the 1TB and 2TB, is it using higher-capacity Flash chips with a smaller cell size in order to fit everything on a single side?
I think it may have 16 dies per package (2TB NAND) where the 2TB can do 8 dies per package (1TB NAND). Should that reduce endurance? Maybe not, but they're specifying lower endurance probably just because they can. 🤷♂️
4TB is becoming increasingly common, and now we want to see the shift toward 8TB (or even 6TB) start ramping up. :)
Power consumption is an issue holding back drives from using the backside. This is really limiting, since the NAND on a one-sided drive needs to share that side of the PCB with the controller.
However, once you start talking about low-power/high-density drives, then we end up in the QLC territory, which is regarded as low-end. This makes it sort of a no-win situation.
Again, I have to wonder if M.2 didn't put the connector on the wrong edge. A connector on the long edge wouldn't have to span the entire PCB, like it does with DIMMs, but putting it there would've made it easier for M.2 drives to sit perpendicular to the motheboard and thereby alleviate the backside penalty.
Power consumption is an issue holding back drives from using the backside. This is really limiting, since the NAND on a one-sided drive needs to share that side of the PCB with the controller.
However, once you start talking about low-power/high-density drives, then we end up in the QLC territory, which is regarded as low-end. This makes it sort of a no-win situation.
Again, I have to wonder if M.2 didn't put the connector on the wrong edge. A connector on the long edge wouldn't have to span the entire PCB, like it does with DIMMs, but putting it there would've made it easier for M.2 drives to sit perpendicular to the motheboard and thereby alleviate the backside penalty.
We're seeing drives that peak at 8W or so for 4TB, so 12W for 8TB should be very doable. Because a big chunk of the power goes to the controller, and you could limit clocks and such to stay within the 12W envelope. The reality for me is that 4TB is good for what I do right now, but I'm quickly approaching the place where having 8TB would be welcome.
Aren't most 8tb units obscenely overpriced? It's usually better to get 2x 4tb units.
That is assuming your machine has two slots, and, even if it does, that you don't need 16TB.
More expensive or not, if you need the extra storage density, the option not being available can force you to go with an alternative drive, even if it is the lesser choice in all other aspects.
There are so many laptops without a second m.2 slot these days. And far too many that don't even come with a 2280 slot.
And then the ones that work with 2280 don't always work with a dual-sided SSD.
