TeamGroup has revealed the T-Force Z54A PCIe 5.0 SSD, which will undoubtedly shame even the best SSDs. With its sequential read and write speeds of up to 14.2 GB/s and 11.5 GB/s, respectively, the T-Force Z54A is set to become the fastest consumer PCIe 5.0 SSD once it hits the retail market.
Unlike other PCIe 5.0 drives that employ the Phison PS5026-E26 controller, the T-Force Z54A leverages a competing solution: the IG5666 controller from InnoGrit. Adata's Project Nighthawk and Project Blackbird SSDs utilize the same controller, but TeamGroup is the first vendor to announce a finished product. There's also a third player out there — Silicon Motion has the SM2508 and SM2504XT controllers that will power upcoming PCIe 5.0 SSDs. However, those will come in late, as they're slated for a fourth-quarter release.
Judging by TeamGroup's provided performance numbers, the Innogrit IG5666 controller delivers higher performance than the Phison PS5026-E26 controller. The screenshot shows the T-Force Z54A hitting sequential read speeds of up to 14,365 MB/s and write speeds of up to 11,547 MB/s. It outperforms the Crucial T700, which is the fastest E26-powered drive with 12.4 GB/s of sequential writes and 11.8 GB/s of sequential reads.
The E26 controller can hit speeds of up to 14 GB/s when paired with NAND, which runs at 2,400 MT/s. Unfortunately, thus far, no consumer PCIe 5.0 SSD has been shown to possess that bin. Even Crucial, a subsidiary of Micron, has only been able to deck the T700 with 2,200 MT/s NAND, restricting the SSD from hitting the maximum potential of the E26 controller. Our sources have told us that the IG5666 controller beats the E26 controller even if the latter is attached to 2,400 MT/s NAND.
There is virtually no public information on the Innogrit IG5666 controller. However, TeamGroup's press release confirms that the IG5666 controller is a product of the 12nm process node and supports 2,400 MT/s NAND, just like the rivaling E26 controller. In addition, the controller seemingly has a unique code-correction technique to extend the longevity of the NAND and a decoder for a low-power mode. TeamGroup didn't specify whether the T-Force Z54A has 2,400 MT/s NAND.
The product render for the T-Force Z54A shows a bare drive without any bulky heatsinks or cooler. But like any other PCIe 5.0 SSD, the drive will likely thermally throttle if you run it without a heatsink, though you may get away with it under standard usage. Still, more intensive workloads will likely impact the drive's performance, so consumers should use the motherboard's integrated M.2 heatsink or an aftermarket cooler with bare drive PCIe 5.0 SSDs. There's a reason why TeamGroup showed off an upcoming 360mm AIO liquid cooler with an M.2 module to liquid cool the T-Force Z54A.
TeamGroup didn't reveal the pricing or availability for the T-Force Z54A, but we'll likely learn more about the IG5666-powered PCIe 5.0 SSD at Computex 2023. Today's press release was probably just a tiny teaser to excite consumers for the upcoming show.
