The ADATA XPG GAMMIX S10 (512GB) SSD Review: Entry-Level NVMe With Style

Conclusion

M.2 PCIe SSDs are usually regarded as high-end SSDs, and the GAMMIX S10 plays into this with the styled heatspreader. But underneath, it's an entry-level NVMe SSD that does not reliably outperform SATA SSDs. The ADATA XPG GAMMIX S10 behaves quite similarly to the Intel SSD 600p, albeit a little bit faster on most tests. They share the same basic strengths and weaknesses. The ADATA XPG SX7000, which is the same as the GAMMIX S10 but without the heatspreader, also falls into this category. All three use the same SM2260 controller and Intel/Micron 3D TLC.

In good conditions like a light workload with plenty of idle time and plenty of spare capacity, the GAMMIX S10 will perform substantially faster than any SATA SSD. But when subjected to intense workloads or when operating nearly full, the GAMMIX S10 gets dramatically slower. Users with storage-intense workloads who need to go beyond the limits of SATA should look to other drives. Users with the kind of lightweight workloads that the GAMMIX S10 can handle well will rarely experience storage being a significant bottleneck, even with a mainstream SATA SSD. That leaves this whole category of entry-level NVMe SSDs viable only when they're competing against SATA SSDs on price, and that isn't happening much in today's market. Good affordable SATA SSDs like the Samsung 850 EVO and Crucial BX300 are much cheaper than the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S10, SX7000 or the Intel 600p.

The pricing on ADATA's NVMe drives is a bit inconsistent, with the MLC-based SX8000 undercutting the TLC-based GAMMIX S10 in some capacities. Some of this is probably due to different models having been released more recently than others (with the SX8000 being one of their earlier releases this year), but the main factor is probably the NAND shortage leading to different SKUs being out of stock or nearly so at different retailers. However, we can assess the general pricing trends and where the GAMMIX S10 and SX7000 seem to fall within them.

The current sale on the 512GB SX7000 for $187.99 is a great deal for a NVMe SSD; prices under 40¢/GB are fairly uncommon. At the 1TB capacity, ADATA's SX7000 and GAMMIX S10 are hard to find, and the Intel 600p can currently be had for $299.99. Barring exceptional deals like these, the general pattern is that Samsung's 960 EVO is usually aggressively priced and almost always the best performer for its price. For smaller capacities (256GB and below), MLC-based drives should be preferred because they tend to be less reliant on SLC caching to improve performance, and they tend to suffer less when nearly full. The MyDigitalSSD BPX is one of the cheapest drives using the combination of the Phison E7 controller and Toshiba planar MLC, and at the 128GB capacity it is currently cheaper than the GAMMIX S10.

Next year, we could see a very different situation in this product segment. Silicon Motion's second generation of NVMe controllers promises big performance increases, and includes low-cost models that will allow entry-level NVMe drives to be priced even closer to SATA SSDs while offering much better performance. The 64-layer Intel/Micron 3D TLC NAND flash memory can solve the rest of the performance problems with drives like the GAMMIX S10. Consequently, the next round of entry-level NVMe drives pairing up Silicon Motion controllers with Intel/Micron 3D NAND should be far more appealing products. But they'll also face increased competition as Phison's second-generation NVMe controllers hit the market and get paired with Toshiba 3D NAND that can also deliver much better performance and power consumption than the GAMMIX S10 or Intel 600p.