TRIM Performance:
While SSD's offer many benefits, there are some downsides to using flash memory. One of the biggest issues people run into is performance degradation. Over time, an SSD will run out of fresh blocks and will have to write over data the file system has marked as deleted. This procedure is very complicated and can slow an SSD's write speeds considerably.
To fix this problem, most manufacturers have added TRIM support to their SSDs. The TRIM command allows an operating system, such as Windows 10, to tell an SSD which data blocks are no longer in use. Using this information, the drive pro-actively erases these blocks and adds them to the free block pool.
To test the P3 Plus's TRIM and garbage collection functions, I first put the drive in a "dirty" state. I used Iometer to fill 80% of the drive and then ran a random write test for 30 minutes. Looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the P3 Plus' average read and write speeds dropped to 2671.15 MB/s and 88.80 MB/s, respectively.
Crucial P3 Plus - Dirty
To see how well the P3 Plus could recover, I let the computer sit for about 30 minutes and then reran the test. The drive wasn't able to reach the factory fresh performance shown in our earlier tests. However, its sequential write speed jumped up to 3792.15 MB/s.
Crucial P3 Plus - After TRIM
Lastly, I used Parted Magic to perform a secure erase on the P3 Plus. With the drive wiped clean, it had average read and write speeds of 3787.53 MB/s and 3950.71 MB/s, respectively.
Crucial P3 Plus - Secure Erased
Final Thoughts:
The Crucial P3 Plus is a great choice for the consumer, professional or gamer looking for an affordable balance of capacity and PCIe 4.0 performance. This compact, M.2 form factor SSD is powered by Phison's DRAM-less PS5012-E21T controller and is available with up to 4TB of Micron's 176-layer 3D QLC NAND flash. Combine this with NVMe's Host Memory Buffer (HMB) feature and a PCIe Gen4 x4 interface and you have a drive capable of transferring data at speeds well beyond that of the fastest PCIe 3.0 SSDs. In our sequential read and write tests, the 2TB version of the P3 Plus was able to read at speeds as high as 5,024 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 4,300 MB/s. It also did fairly well in our random write tests, producing more than 168,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
Despite being budget friendly, the P3 Plus includes many of the same features found on Crucial's higher-end SSDs. The drive uses technologies like Dynamic Write Acceleration to optimize performance as well as multistep data integrity algorithms and Redundant Array of Independent NAND (RAIN) to protect data and prevent it from becoming corrupted. The P3 Plus also features thermal and power loss protection, active garbage collection and device sleep support which extends the battery life of a device by reducing the drive's power consumption when it's not in use. To top it all off, it comes with Acronis True Image cloning software and is covered by a generous 5 year warranty.
The Crucial P3 Plus is available now in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities. Prices on Amazon.com currently range from $55 up to $290, with the 2TB version reviewed here retailing for about $156.
Highs:
- Available in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities
- PCIe 4.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Phison PS5012-E21T controller
- Equipped with Micron 176-layer 3D QLC NAND
- Very good sequential read and write performance
- Good random read and write performance in most situations
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- Dynamic Write Acceleration
- Supports Redundant Array of Independent NAND and Multistep Data Integrity Algorithms
- Supports TRIM and active garbage collection
- Thermal and power loss protection
- Host Memory Buffer (HMB)
- Includes Acronis True Image cloning software
- Reasonably priced
- 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Does not support hardware based encryption
