The fastest SSDs are essential for lightning quick boot times, speedier read/write times, and improved PC performance. Internal solid state drives are already much faster than hard disk drives. Hard disk drives contain moving parts, which slow them down and make them prone to catastrophic failure over time.
But choosing the best SSD for speed isn’t as straightforward as it seems. There is a wide range on the market, from internal drives you’ll need to fit yourself to the fastest external SSDs that offer plug-and-play simplicity.
As a starting point, for optimal performance, I recommend selecting a PCIe NVMe SSD over a SATA drive. To help you find the right drive, TechRadar has tested a range of internal SSDs over the past few years for your PC.
Note that I am looking for the fastest solid state drives rather than the best SSDs or best portable SSDs as there are other variables like warranty and price that come into play. So if you feel the need for speed, you’ll find the right SSD below.
Fastest SSD overall
If you’ve got the money for it, the Crucial T705 is a blisteringly fast PCIe Gen 5 SSD - and for rigs that can take advantage of the technology, it’s a must. Perfect for gamers, content creators, and anyone looking for who needs rapid file access.
Running the T705 through our standard benchmark suite, including CrystalDiskMark 8, PassMark, PCMark 10, and 3DMark, the T705’s performance was outstanding, easily surpassing the brilliant Samsung 990 Pro. Most users will be delighted with its read, write, and copy speeds. Unless you have a good motherboard and M.2 slot heat sinks, we recommend getting the optional heatsink, as this will better cool the SSD when in use.
Admittedly, it’s not the cheapest SSD around (it’s not the most expensive either, but it’s certainly at the higher end). However, considering the outstanding performance, with super-fast load times and exports, it offers a fair price-per-terabyte. Just make sure to get the optional heatsink for best results.
Read our full Crucial T705 SSD review
Fastest SSD for capacity
The Adata XPG Gammix S70 Blade is the fastest PCIe Gen4 SSD with 8TB capacity with excellent read/write performance.
At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any 8TB Gen5 SSD available on the market. Several vendors announced large capacity PCIe Gen5 SSD as early as 2022 but so far none have gone on sale.
Testing out the 1TB version inside a PS5 (it features a PS5-ready heatsink), the drive hit read figure of 6,384 MB/s read speeds, exactly right for the console, though on computers, it should reach 7400MB/s. As such, it offers serious competition to top-end SSDs like the Kingston Fury Renegade and the Seagate FireCuda 530.
If our reviewer could find fault at all, it was with the heatsink, which isn’t the best we’ve seen, and the design, which is basic. Minor nit-picks for one of the fastest SSDs out there, at a competitive price for the performance.
Read our full Adata XPG Gammix S70 Blade review
Fastest SSD for value
The fastest SSDs can be expensive - especially at higher capacities, so it’s worth looking for one that offers a good ratio of price to performance. The Teamgroup MP44 SSD fits neatly into this bracket.
You’ll find no end of fast SSDs that won’t break the bank. For sake of simplicity, I chose the cheapest 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD at the time of writing that has the following features: a sustained read speed above 6.5GBps, good availability at major US retailers, well-known and reviewed brand name.
Our sister publication, Tom’s Hardware, has reviewed the Teamgroup MP44, an SSD that costs less than $120 right now at Amazon and can reach sequential speeds of up to 7.4GBps. Test results were good. You might see better performance from the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs - think the SN850X, P44 Pro, and 990 Pro - but few offer as good value. As an added bonus, it is also widely available with an 8TB capacity.
See what our sister site Tom’s Hardware thought in their Teamgroup MP44 SSD review
Also consider
Seagate’s Firecuda 540 is no longer the top dog, but should be fast enough for most users with a sustained read/write speed above 10GBps.
What sets it apart from the rest of the field is the free data recovery service that Seagate bundles with this SSD. For a whole three years, you get the sort of piece of mind that comes with knowing that there’s a rescue service for your precious bytes should there be a problem. An eye-catching extra considering the drive has a five-year warranty, too.
Performance-wise, the Firecuda 540 was impressive, from load times to transfer speeds. At the time of testing, we said it “represents everything that the next-generation of NVMe technology is capable of with its impressive sequential performance.”
Other SSDs on this list now surpass the drive's capabilities, and it’s not the cheapest you can get right now. However, the Seagate Firecuda 540 remains a worthy contender for standard, speedy storage - especially with its data recovery service for added peace-of-mind.
Read our full Seagate FireCuda 540 review
Fastest SSDs: FAQs
What's a SATA SSD?
The SATA interface first launched in 2003. It was originally designed for traditional magnetic hard drives but many SSDs are also compatible. This is the slowest form of interface, so is best avoided if you want the fastest SSD speeds.
What is PCIe?
PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) is a much smaller interface than SATA making it perfect for smaller devices like laptops. There have been several successive generations of PCIe, which transmit data across multiple 'lanes'. For the best performance you'll need a motherboard and SSD with a PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 interface.
What is NVMe?
NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communication protocol designed to work with an SSD's flash memory using PCIe. This makes for extremely fast data transfer speeds.
What is M.2?
An M.2 SSD is a small SSD (sometimes known as a "gumstick" drive) that works via the M.2 interface. M.2 is compatible with PCIe, SATA and NVMe. This means knowing an SSD uses the M.2 interface isn't a guarantee of high performance - check the manufacturer's specifications.
What makes an SSD super fast?
The NAND: Data is stored on NAND chips which are manufactured by a handful of companies worldwide. The single most important measure of NAND performance is the number of layers. Generally, the higher the number of layer, the faster the NAND. SLC NAND is the fastest (and very expensive), QLC is the slowest with TLC being the most popular for speedy SSDs.
The controller: This is the maestro that get all the NAND chips to work together. You may want to look at SSDs that come with the following controllers: Phison, Innogrit, Silicon Motion and Maxio. Some vendors like Samsung, WD and SK Hynix have their own proprietary controllers.
The interface: PCIe 5.0 is the newest and fastest currently on the market. They do carry a significant premium and reach around 14GBps in read/write sustained speed.
The firmware: Controllers need to be optimized to match the NAND they will be using it with. The firmware is like the set of knobs that can be adjusted to tweak different aspects of performance. Some vendors (like Samsung or Solidigm) have dedicated software packages that allow end users to tweak performance. One vendor went as far as saying that they could boost 4K sequential speeds by up to 170%. See our interview with Solidigm’s Ace Stryker.
The capacity: Larger capacities are usually faster than smaller capacities: 1TB will be the slowest. Then 2TB is the sweet spot and will hold up to 4TB speeds; when you get to around 8TB SSDs, performance slows down.
What does fast actually mean?
Objectively, it’s all about how speedy your SSD is. That’s measured in MBps or IOPS. Sequential write and reads are great and used mostly for promotional type stuff. These are the headline numbers that manufacturers usually quote on their packaging or, in bold, on product landing pages. This does matter when moving large files around. For me, what really matters is 4K Random (sequantial or random). That is what the overwhelming majority of the stuff your PC (or laptop) is doing: moving, writing, and reading very small files.
How to know how fast your SSD is?
TechRadar’s John Loeffler has written a pretty extensive guide on how to benchmark an SSD and find out its speed.
It involves installing a couple of free applications and undergo what we call in technical lingo, benchmarking which is essentially testing your SSD. Because a number of variables (e.g. available free capacity, temperature, endurance etc), a used SSD may not perform as well as a new one.
How to choose the fastest SSD
When choosing the fastest SSD, there are a number of factors to consider - and speed is only one of them. First, make sure to avoid hard disk drives. Even the best HDDs will pale in comparison to SSDs when you're optimizing for performance.
While most SSDs are designed to be backwards compatible, for the very best read/write speeds from your SSDs you'll need a motherboard with a PCIe 5.0 slot, as well as a compatible PCI4 5.0 SSD with support for 32 data lanes. Currently not many motherboards and devices are fully PCIe 5.0 compatible and those that are can be expensive.
Also consider what sort of programs you're going to run. SSDs are an excellent choice if you need a lot of physical storage space or you're using resource-intensive apps like the best video editing software.
How we test the fastest SSDs
We've tested, reviewed, and rated hundreds of disk drives, from the largest SSDs and HDDs to best external hard drives for Macs.
When conducting out rigorous testing process, we don't just focus on read/write speeds. We also compare each device's drive standard (for example NVMe or SATA), price, and storage capacity,
- Thanks to William Harmon, Director, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Sr. Technical Marketing (Specialist and Enterprise Storage Sales) at Sabrent for his advice when writing this piece.
