AMD Radeon R7 SSD (240GB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on August 28, 2014 6:00 AM ESTIn 2011 AMD took the first step in expanding the Radeon brand and partnered with Patriot and VisionTek to provide AMD branded memory. With the launch of the Radeon R7 SSD AMD is continuing this strategy by jumping into the SSD market. Just as they did with memory, AMD is partnering with a third party that handles the development, manufacturing and support of the product, which in the case of the R7 SSD is OCZ.
While the front is covered by AMD branding, the back label is OCZ branded and there is no effort to hide the fact that the drive is made by OCZ. Both companies are very open about the partnership as AMD mentions OCZ as the partner in the first sentence of the R7 SSD press release and OCZ even lists the R7 as one of their products on their website. I am glad that there is no secrecy regarding the origin of the R7 SSD because there is already enough shady things going on in the SSD industry (e.g. Kingston switching the NAND in the SSDNow V300 and PNY using multiple controllers in the Optima).
OCZ is a logical partner for AMD because the company is now owned and financially backed by Toshiba, which also gives OCZ prime access to NAND. Given the always haunting NAND shortage, a partner without direct access to NAND will more likely run into supply issues that may hurt AMD's brand as consequence. Additionally, OCZ's Barefoot 3 platform has been geared towards the higher-end market (gamers, enthusiasts and professionals) from day one and has proven to be a good performer.
As I mentioned in the launch pipeline, AMD is not really bringing anything new to the market. The number one goal with the R7 SSD and expansion of the Radeon brand is to make it easier for novice PC builders to pick parts and at the same time ensure that the parts they purchase are high quality and provide good performance. For someone that has never built a PC, the available selection can be fairly overwhelming, so AMD is trying to make the part selection smoother by providing the CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD. Obviously, the R7 SSD also gives AMD a great opportunity to offer more extensive bundles and with aggressive bundle pricing AMD could boost its CPU sales too.
AMD Radeon R7 Series SSD Specifications | |||||
Capacity | 120GB | 240GB | 480GB | ||
Controller | OCZ Barefoot 3 M00 | ||||
NAND | Toshiba 64Gbit A19nm MLC | ||||
Sequential Read | 550MB/s | 550MB/s | 550MB/s | ||
Sequential Write | 470MB/s | 530MB/s | 530MB/s | ||
4KB Random Read | 85K IOPS | 95K IOPS | 100K IOPS | ||
4KB Random Write | 90K IOPS | 90K IOPS | 90K IOPS | ||
Steady-State 4KB Random Write | 12K IOPS | 20K IOPS | 23K IOPS | ||
Idle Power | 0.6W | 0.6W | 0.6W | ||
Max Power | 2.7W | 2.7W | 2.7W | ||
Encryption | AES-256 | ||||
Endurance | 30GB/day for 4 years | ||||
Warranty | Four years | ||||
Pricing | $100 | $160 | $290 |
The R7 SSD is based on OCZ's Barefoot 3 M00 controller, which is the faster version running at 397MHz, while the M10 version that is used in the ARC 100 and Vertex 460/450 runs at 352MHz instead. The NAND is the same Toshiba's 64Gbit A19nm MLC as in the ARC 100 and in fact even the part number is an exact match.
What separates the R7 SSD from OCZ's other SSDs is the endurance. While the ARC 100 is rated at 20GB for three years (21.9TB total) and the Vector 150 is at 50GB for five years (91.2TB total), the R7 hits the middle ground by offering 30GB of writes per day for four years (43.8TB total). OCZ did some wear-leveling and garbage collection optimizations to achieve the higher endurance in the R7 but otherwise the R7 should be very similar to OCZ's ARC 100.
Sadly there is still no support for low power states and TCG Opal 2.0 / eDrive. The lack of TCG Opal 2.0 support I can understand since that is not the most important feature for gamers and enthusiasts, but by not having support for low power states (HIPM+DIPM and DevSleep) the Barefoot 3 platform is simply not competitive in the mobile space.
Test Systems
For AnandTech Storage Benches, performance consistency, random and sequential performance, performance vs transfer size and load power consumption we use the following system:
CPU | Intel Core i5-2500K running at 3.3GHz (Turbo & EIST enabled) |
Motherboard | AsRock Z68 Pro3 |
Chipset | Intel Z68 |
Chipset Drivers | Intel 9.1.1.1015 + Intel RST 10.2 |
Memory | G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1600 4 x 8GB (9-9-9-24) |
Video Card | Palit GeForce GTX 770 JetStream 2GB GDDR5 (1150MHz core clock; 3505MHz GDDR5 effective) |
Video Drivers | NVIDIA GeForce 332.21 WHQL |
Desktop Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
OS | Windows 7 x64 |
Thanks to G.Skill for the RipjawsX 32GB DDR3 DRAM kit
For slumber power testing we used a different system:
CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K running at 3.3GHz (Turbo & EIST enabled, C-states disabled) |
Motherboard | ASUS Z87 Deluxe (BIOS 1707) |
Chipset | Intel Z87 |
Chipset Drivers | Intel 9.4.0.1026 + Intel RST 12.9 |
Memory | Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866 2x8GB (9-10-9-27 2T) |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4600 |
Graphics Drivers | 15.33.8.64.3345 |
Desktop Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
OS | Windows 7 x64 |
- Thanks to Intel for the Core i7-4770K CPU
- Thanks to ASUS for the Z87 Deluxe motherboard
- Thanks to Corsair for the Vengeance 16GB DDR3-1866 DRAM kit, RM750 power supply, Hydro H60 CPU cooler and Carbide 330R case
54 Comments
View All Comments
yannigr2 - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
Fear only Intel and Nvidia buttons in the front page. An AMD button is just an AMD button. AMD's pockets are empty to influence Anandtech like the other two firms are already for years and without front page buttons influencing other major sites.yannigr2 - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
I can only explain like this the high price compared with other disks that perform the same- It targets AMD fans who are willing to pay a little extra for the sticker with the "Radeon" brand on it.
- Rebranding and selling someone else's disk does add extra costs.
- It's not meant really for retail. This is a disk that will improve the total package that an OEM will take from AMD.
SleepyFE - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
I think the drive is a bit much for OEMs. That said, it would be good if PCs under 600$ came with an SSD.ExarKun333 - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
Seriously AMD? The pricing is terrible and you are essentially looking to sell an inferior product for more than a superior one. Why? smhDoach - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
Love the SSD reviews Kristian. Very well written and informative.Curious, why haven't you tested a toshiba q pro series SSD yet? You have tested their partners SSDs but not theirs. According to other sites the performance is about the same as a samsung 840 pro, which is a top performer. The price is right also.
Would love to see you review this model. I saw the reviews on the other sites but your reviews are better in my opinion.
www.amazon.com/Toshiba-512GB-Series-Internal-HDTS351XZSTA/dp/B00FR6VM54/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409228046&sr=8-3&keywords=Toshiba+ssd
www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6057/toshiba-q-series-pro-256gb-ssd-review-offers-great-value/index.html
Kristian Vättö - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
I met with Toshiba for the first time at FMS a few weeks ago and we didn't have a direct contact before that. Let me get in touch with them to see if they can send us some samples.Doach - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
That would be great! Looking foward to another great review.Thanks for the reply kristian.
LiviuTM - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
Great review, as always.Indeed, MSRP is not competitive at all.
A simple conversion shows the 512GB drive would cost ~220 Euros and that's without taking into account the taxes you pay in Europe.
There are obviously much better choices. Here in Romania you can buy the 512 GB Crucial MX100 for 207 Euros. An even better deal is the 512 GB Crucial M550 which right now is running for just 5 Euro more than MX100 (212 Euros!), after a recent 50 Euro price slash.
i don't need another SSD, otherwise I would have jumped on the offer with my eyes closed.
kyuu - Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - link
Except you can't simply convert the US price to Euros and take that as the price it would be sold for in Europe. That isn't how pricing works.You're also comparing MSRPs to "street" prices. SSDs in particular often sell for much less than their MSRP.
The_Assimilator - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
Now all we need are Radeon-branded motherboards and power supplies, and you could build a full system that's shit from top to bottom.