Like the Crucial T705 but more affordable? Micron 4600 PCIe Gen5 SSD comes painfully close to its award-winning sibling

• 14.5Gbps read speeds make the 4600 a powerful bit of kit
• The SSD is found lacking compared to other Gen5 options
• AI performance capabilities make it a potential game changer

Micron’s new Gen5 SSD is a powerful piece of hardware which it says could be a game changer for accessibility.

The Micron 4600 PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD caters to a range of potential users, from gamers and content creators to enterprises and professionals. Harnessing Micron’s G9 TLC NAND, the 4600 SSD marks the firm’s first Gen5 SSD and doubles the performance of its predecessor.

All told, this equates to sequential read speeds of 14.5 Gbps and write speeds of up to 12Gbps. Its performance on read speed places it high up the list of top-performing SSDs, but compared to the Crucial T705 SSD, it doesn't quite match up on the latter front.

AI performance in mind

The SSD also comes in a range of options, including 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities

Micron is keen to highlight the potential AI-applications for the new SSD, particularly in terms of user efficiency.

The company noted a user could load a large language model (LLM) from the SSD to DRAM in less than one second. That’s some serious performance for users working from AI PCs.

Elsewhere on the AI front, the SSD is capable of significantly reducing model loading times - up to 62%, according to Micron - compared to Gen4 SSD predecessors and boasts a 107% improvement in energy efficiency.

"With the 4600 NVMe SSD, users can load large language models in less than one second, enabling PC experiences in data-intensive applications, especially for AI,” said Prasad Alluri, vice president and general manager for Client Storage at Micron.

“As AI inference runs locally on the PC, the transition to Gen5 SSDs addresses the increased need for higher performance and energy efficiency.”

Wide-reaching applications

While Micron touted the SSD’s AI capabilities, the storage device also has applications across a wide range of fields.

Benchmark results compared to the PCIe Gen4 Micron 3500 SSD in media and entertainment applications shows a 61% performance improvement.

Life sciences and product development applications also show a 38% and 45% performance improvement respectively.

Gen5 SSDs are growing in popularity

The launch of the new SSD comes at a time when consumers and enterprises alike are demanding better performance, Micron noted.

The firm also expects Gen5 SSD technology will “grow rapidly in 2025 and 2026”, and its integration with other leading platforms could be a key appeal for users.

The 4600 is compatible with AMD’s Ryzen 9000 Series processors and Intel Core Ultra Desktop and Mobile (Series 2) processors, for example.

"AMD is excited to collaborate on the validation of the Micron 4600 NVMe SSD with our latest Ryzen family of processors," said Joe Macri, senior vice president and chief technology officer of compute and graphics at AMD.

"The Micron 4600 NVMe SSD is anticipated to deliver exceptional performance and a best-in-class user experience for the most demanding professional applications and high-speed gaming."

You might also like

• The Micron SSD that cost more than a diamond
• The best SSDs for your your PC right now
• Micron is eyeing up a bigger slice of the HBM market