The fastest SSDs
70 drives meet the rule below, 56 of them with a live Amazon listing. Ranked strictly on rated sequential read, fastest first. Sequential read is the number manufacturers compete on and the one that shows up in large file copies and load screens.
What is on this list
A drive is included when it meets all of:
- Rated sequential read of 7,000 MB/s or more
- Any interface, any capacity
What this data does not tell you:
- Sequential read is a peak figure. Random I/O, sustained write once the SLC cache fills, and thermal throttling all vary between drives with the same headline speed.
- Speeds are the manufacturer's rating for the fastest capacity in the range. Smaller capacities in the same family are usually slower.
Ranked by read
The top 20 of 70 are listed. The full SSD catalogue filters on every spec.
| # | Model | Tier | Controller | Read MB/s | TBW | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sabrent ROCKET 4 PLUS 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7200 | 2800 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 |  Samsung 980 PRO 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | SAMSUNG ELPIS CONTROLLER (Samsung | 7000 | 1200 | Check price on Amazon |
| 3 |  TeamGroup CARDEA A440 M.2 PCIe 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | 1400 | Check price on Amazon |
| 4 |  ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Innogrit IG5236 “Rainier” Controll | 7400 | 1480 | Find on Amazon |
| 5 |  ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Innogrit IG5236 “Rainier” Controll | 7400 | 1480 | Find on Amazon |
| 6 |  Patriot VIPER GAMING VP4300 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Innogrit IG5236 “Rainier” Controll | 7400 | 2000 | Find on Amazon |
| 7 |  Mushkin GAMMA 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7175 | 1400 | Find on Amazon |
| 8 |  Addlink S95 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7100 | 1400 | Find on Amazon |
| 9 |  Western Digital WD BLACK™ SN850 NVMe 500GB, 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | WD_BLACK G2 | Sandisk Modelo 20-82 | 7000 | 1200 | Find on Amazon |
| 10 |  Anacomda i4 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | — | Find on Amazon |
| 11 |  Corsair Gen4 PCIe MP600 Pro 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | 1400 | Find on Amazon |
| 12 | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | 1400 | Find on Amazon | |
| 13 |  Galax HALL OF FAME EXTREME 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | — | Find on Amazon |
| 14 |  Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | 1400 | Find on Amazon |
| 15 |  Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7000s Premium 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | 1400 | Find on Amazon |
| 16 |  MSI SPATIUM M480 500GB, 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | — | 7000 | 1400 | Find on Amazon |
| 17 |  Reletech P400 EVO 500GB, 1TB, 2TB | Top-tier | Phison PS5018-E18 (TSMC 12nm, 8 Ca | 7000 | — | Find on Amazon |
| 18 | Corsair MP700 Pro XT 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | High-end | Phison E28 | 14900 | — | Check price on Amazon |
| 19 | Crucial T710 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | High-end | Silicon Motion SM2508 | 14900 | — | Check price on Amazon |
| 20 | PNY CS3250 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | High-end | Phison E28 | 14900 | — | Check price on Amazon |
What actually makes a drive fast
Above roughly 7,000 MB/s you are looking at PCIe 4.0 drives at their ceiling and PCIe 5.0 drives beginning to stretch out. The controller and whether the drive carries a DRAM cache decide how much of that speed survives once the workload stops being a single large sequential copy.
Where the speed is visible, and where it is not
Moving large files, exporting video and pulling a project off an archive drive all scale with sequential throughput. Booting, launching applications and loading most games do not: those are dominated by small random reads, where the gap between a good Gen4 drive and a Gen5 flagship is far narrower than the headline numbers suggest.
Heat is the practical limit
The quickest Gen5 drives draw enough power to throttle without a heatsink. Many motherboards ship with an M.2 heatsink that is sufficient; in a laptop or a small case, sustained speed is usually limited by cooling rather than by the drive.
Common questions
Is a PCIe 5.0 SSD worth it over PCIe 4.0?
For large sequential transfers, yes: Gen5 roughly doubles Gen4 bandwidth. For gaming and everyday desktop use the difference is small, because those workloads are random rather than sequential. Gen5 also runs hotter and costs more per gigabyte.
Do these speeds apply to every capacity?
No. Within one product family the smaller capacities usually have fewer NAND dies to write across in parallel, so they are rated slower. The figure shown here is the fastest capacity in the range.