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With the new Micron 96L TLC flash and much greater bandwidth potential on the latest PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, Adata’s XPG Gammix S50 Lite shows us just how fast Silicon Motion’s budget-oriented 4-channel SM2267 NVMe SSD controller can go with the latest tech. Adata’s XPG Gammix S50 Lite isn’t as robust as the Samsung 980 PRO and its next-gen Elpis controller or Sabrent’s Rocket NVMe 4.0 sporting Phison’s high-end E16, but even so, it was still hot on the heels of the fastest SSDs during our benchmarks.
The Adata XPG Gammix S50 Lite’s only drawback is its slow write speed after the SLC cache fills, but fortunately, the SSD leverages clever programming and flash management technologies to enable fairly responsive writes during extended-duration workloads. That’s a very noticeable improvement from the usually slow-to-recover SM2262EN-powered SSDs like the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro and Kingston KC2500. Adata’s XPG Gammix S50 Lite proved that it could outpace some of the best SSDs. The drive also has nearly everything you could ask for from an M.2 NVMe SSD. It is efficient, has cool thermals with a classy-looking heatsink, is built on a black PCB, and even features AES 256-bit full disk encryption for those who want the added security. Plus, it is well-backed with a five-year warranty, and it’s rated for higher endurance than the Samsung 980 PRO. Samsung’s 980 PRO is the best PCIe Gen4 SSD on the market, but at the time of writing, the Adata XPG Gammix S50 Lite is much more affordable at $80 cheaper at 1TB. That’s not to mention that the 980 PRO won’t be available in a 2TB capacity until later this year, while you can buy a 2TB S50 Lite today. Moreover, the drive is roughly $50 cheaper than most of Phison’s E16-based NVMe SSDs like the Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0, Corsair Force MP600, or Seagate FireCuda 520. The Adata’s XPG Gammix S50 Lite’s toughest competition came from the company's aging XPG SX8200 Pro. While the SX8200 Pro still hangs in there with the XPG Gammix S50 Lite, it is beginning to show its age. It is $15 cheaper than the Gammix S50 Lite at 1TB, and a hearty $50 at 2TB, though, ultimately making it a better value – at least until it is finally phased out of the market. For those on the latest PCIe 4.0 supporting hardware that want a responsive user experience, the Adata XPG Gammix S50 Lite satisfies that need. At more affordable prices than much of its competition, Adata’s XPG Gammix S50 Lite is one of the best value low-cost PCIe Gen4 SSDs yet.
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