If you are looking for a good and cheap SSD from a trustworthy manufacturer, you might stumble across the KIOXIA EXCERIA (PLUS) models.
The latest model in the EXCERIA Plus series is the “G3”. This is fast with up to 5000 MB/s, but is certainly not a high-end SSD, which is also reflected in the price.
Let’s take a look at these in the test! How good is the SSD? What is the constant power? Let’s find out!
At this point, many thanks to KIOXIA for providing the EXCERIA PLUS G3 for this test.
KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 im Test
The EXCERIA PLUS G3 is a complete classic 2280 M.2 NVME SSD. This also relies on a comparatively simple design.
So we have a very high quality sticker and a blue/turquoise PCB.
A heat sink or similar is not included in the scope of delivery.
Equipped on one side
Fortunately, the KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 in the 2TB version (and probably in all versions) is only equipped on one side, which improves compatibility with notebooks.
Technology of the KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3
The EXCERIA PLUS G3 is one of the few and first SSDs to use the new BiCS6 NAND from KIOXIA. BiCS6 uses 162 layers (compared to BiCS5 which only has 112 layers) and has twice the interface speed compared to BiCS5.
Also pleasingly, the SSD also uses the theoretically faster TLC NAND.
The Phison E21 is used as the controller. The Phison E21 is a simple and economical controller, more about this here:
The SSD does not have a DRAM cache.
On the data rate side, KIOXIA promises:
5000 MB/s reading 3900 MB/s writing
So we can see that the SSD uses PCIe 4.0 as an interface. 5000 MB/s is also the maximum performance of the Phison E21 controller.
Test system
The following test system is used for the following benchmarks
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WIFI
16GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro 22H2
Benchmarks der EXCERIA PLUS G3 (CrystalDiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil’s Storage Utilities)
Let’s start the test with CrystalDiskMark. CrystalDiskMark is currently the best test to test the maximum performance of an SSD.
CrystalDiskMark is not always very suitable for everyday use, but it is the best test to fully utilize the SSD.
EXCERIA PLUS G3 CrystalDiskMark
KIOXIA promises 5000 MB/s reading and 3900 MB/s writing for the EXCERIA PLUS G3. These values were also achieved in my test!
The SSD managed 5064 MB/s reading and 3967 MB/s writing. This makes the SSD a bit faster than advertised.
However, compared to many other SSDs, the EXCERIA PLUS G3 is still on the slightly slower side.
This is certainly most comparable to an SSD like the WD SN580, which comparison the SSD also wins here.
Somewhat hidden, CrystalDiskMark offers the ability to measure the IOPS and access time of SSDs. Neither of these are the most accurate or best measurements, but let’s take a look at the results here too.
Here the results seem to be quite consistent. The SSD placed in the lower midfield in both tests.
Let’s move on to AS SSD. This test isn’t necessarily well optimized for modern SSDs, but it can still provide some interesting values, although I wouldn’t read too much into them.
However, in this case, the AS SSD values match the other benchmarks well. The EXCERIA PLUS G3 places just above the WD SN580.
Anvil’s Storage Utilities is itself very well optimized for modern SSDs. Here the EXCERIA PLUS G3 performs slightly worse than, for example, the WD SN580, which was otherwise behind the KIOXIA.
PC Mark
The PC Mark test aims to simulate everyday applications such as office applications and games with its memory benchmark.
There are three test options available: the “Quick” variant, “Data” and the “full” version. The “full” version uses larger file sizes, causing SSDs with slow write speeds or aggressive write caches to perform worse.
PC Mark seems to really like the EXCERIA PLUS G3! The SSD performs very well here, especially in the Data Drive and Quick Test! Here it can even clearly beat models that should actually be better.
The results in the Full System Drive benchmark remain very good, but here the SSD performs a little more as expected.
Importantly, since the values here originally seemed a bit too good to me, I repeated the tests and also randomly tested the other SSDs again. The values also matched when checked.
3D Mark SSD Test
3D Mark, on the other hand, specializes in measuring game loading times. These are properly “simulated” internally and there is not just a theoretical measurement.
The 3D Mark SSD test tests the following:
Loading Battlefield™ V from launch to the main menu.
Loading Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
Loading Overwatch® from launch to the main menu.
Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch®.
Installing The Outer Worlds® from the Epic Games Launcher.
Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds®.
Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike®: Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.
Here we again see a result that is on par with the theoretical benchmarks. The EXCERIA PLUS G3 is +- on par with the WD SN580 in the lower midfield.
Practice test
Finally, let’s copy two large archives to the SSD, which we then unpack from it. This benchmark is also representative of, for example, installing games and programs.
File package A – installation of Tiny Tinas Wonderland approx. 52GB File package B – installation of Tiny Tinas Wonderland, Total War Warhammer 3 and GW2 approx. 231 GB
In the practical tests, the EXCERIA PLUS G3 +- also places itself in the middle of the SSDs tested so far, along with the WD SN580 SSD.
However, it tends to perform better in the test with the larger amount of data.
SLC Cache?
Almost all current SSDs have a so-called SLC cache. Even the most advanced NAND typically cannot be written at data rates of 6000 MB/s. To get around this problem, SSDs use a trick.
The EXCERIA PLUS G3, for example, uses TLC NAND. TLC NAND allows writing up to 3 bits per cell. However, the writing process becomes more complex the more bits are written per cell. Therefore, writing QLC NAND is slower in comparison.
But what happens if we only write one bit per cell? This speeds up the writing process significantly! In this way, modern SSDs achieve high write rates by only writing a part of the TLC/QLC NAND with one bit.
However, this cache is not unlimited in size, and after the cache the data rates can sometimes drop extremely. QLC SSDs often only reach around 100 MB/s after cache, while simple TLC SSDs usually reach around 300-400 MB/s.
For this test, I write the SSDs completely once and record the speed with H2Testw. H2Testw does not use the full speed, but offers correct rankings and realistic “everyday speeds” compared to other SSDs.
Oh! The KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 took over 1:21 hours to be fully written. This makes the SSD almost surprisingly slow.
We can see that the write rate of the SSD drops twice. First, we have the full data rate that H2TestW can achieve.
After about 500 GB of data has been written, the data rate drops to around 500 MB/s.
After about 1200 GB of data has been written, the data rate drops again to 215-250 MB/s.
This is relatively low for an SSD that uses TLC NAND!
Heat development
A plus point with the KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 is the heat development. The SSD naturally gets hot under constant load and a heat sink is clearly recommended.
However, in my test a heat sink was not necessary! The SSD reached a maximum of +- 78 degrees under constant load without a heat sink and without direct airflow in an open test setup.
This is not a small number, but the SSD did not throttle down in an extended CrystalDiskMark benchmark.
This is not a given and looks different on most modern SSDs.
Power consumption
Determining the power consumption of M.2 SSDs is a challenge. To accomplish this, I use a special method: I install the SSDs in an external NVME SSD enclosure with USB-C 3.1 and measure the total power consumption of this enclosure, which also including the consumption of the SSD. Although an exact measurement is not possible due to the SSD performance limitation of 1000 MB/s, the results still provide an overview of the energy requirements of different SSDs. It is therefore advisable to focus less on absolute values and rather make a comparison between different models in order to assess whether an SSD tends to require more or less energy.
This test plays little role for use in a desktop computer, as a deviation of around +- 1 watt has little impact on the electricity bill. But in an Ultrabook, a difference of just +- 1 watt can affect battery life by almost an hour.
Very good! The KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 seems to be a very economical SSD, at least according to my admittedly rough test method.
Strictly speaking, the G3 was one of the most economical SSDs I’ve ever had in my hands, which also fits with the comparatively low heat development.
Below I have also recorded the power consumption during a CrystalDiskMark run.
Here too the values look very good!
Conclusion
The KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G3 is without question not the fastest SSD currently on the market, but it is still interesting for many users!
Why? The EXCERIA PLUS G3 is a comparatively cool and economical SSD, but still offers good performance when reading. This makes it interesting for notebooks, especially if you are not looking for the absolute maximum performance.
In principle, the performance of the EXCERIA PLUS G3 is anything but bad. This usually outperforms the WD SN580, which I would definitely consider a direct competitor.
Only the performance after the SLC cache is weak. If you copy large amounts of data at once, the EXCERIA PLUS G3 is not good. This is therefore less suitable as an import SSD for media or similar.
However, as an additional program or games SSD, I absolutely see a place for these, especially in notebooks. Likewise in simpler or “battery life” oriented systems.