The ADATA XPG SX8200 & GAMMIX S11 NVMe SSD Review: High Performance At All Sizes

Conclusion

The ADATA XPG SX8200 and GAMMIX S11 provide more evidence that Silicon Motion's latest NVMe SSD controller is a winner. The excellent performance we got from the 1TB HP EX920 doesn't require that high of a capacity—the 480GB ADATA drives tested here are never far behind, and the 240GB SX8200 is a bit slower on several tests but is still very fast overall. ADATA made the right choice by not including a 120GB model in the SX8200 family. A 120GB model would not have been able to perform adequately for this class of product.

The SX8200 and GAMMIX S11 represent a huge advance over their predecessors. The SX8000, SX7000 and GAMMIX S10 used Silicon Motion's first NVMe controller, which proved to be inadequate for powering a high-end SSD, but it was the best option ADATA had at the time. With the new generation of SSD controllers and 3D NAND flash, ADATA is finally able to hit their performance goals and deliver a competitive premium NVMe SSD.

ADATA hasn't done much to differentiate the SX8200 and GAMMIX S11 from each other or from other SM2262 drives on the market. The heatspreaders provide mostly cosmetic value while the functional aspects of the drive sticks to Silicon Motion's reference design. The great results we've been getting from these reference designs calls into question Intel's custom firmware for the 760p. The 760p is by no means always slower than drives like the SX8200 or HP EX920, but overall the reference firmware seems to offer the better balance of performance for most users. Intel's close relationship with Silicon Motion sometimes gives them a distinct advantage, but in this case it seems like the 760p may have been released a little too early.

With few functional differences from other SM2262 drives on the market, ADATA has to compete almost solely on price. They seem to be doing a good job of that. The XPG GAMMIX S11 is generally a bit more expensive than the SX8200, but at the moment supplies of the 240GB SX8200 seem to be limited and the GAMMIX S11 is actually slightly cheaper. The HP EX920 is a slightly better value at 1TB, but for lower capacities either ADATA drive wins. The ADATA SX8200 is also barely more expensive than the MyDigitalSSD SBX, one of the more competitively-priced low-end NVMe SSDs. ADATA's own SX6000 low-end NVMe SSD is even cheaper and closer to SATA pricing, but it comes with pretty serious performance compromises and a relatively unproven Realtek controller.

With even the smallest SX8200 turning in some of the highest scores on our AnandTech Storage Bench tests of real-world I/O patterns, it's quite difficult to make a case for the more expensive drives like the Western Digital WD Black and the Samsung 970 EVO, let alone the 970 PRO. The WD Black still provides a unique combination of performance and power efficiency, but for desktop users its advantages aren't worth the price premium. The 970 EVO offers better performance on some real-world workloads, but for the vast majority of users who don't have a workload that's anywhere near as intense as The Destroyer, the 970 EVO's performance advantages won't be realized.