TeamGroup MP44

The TeamGroup MP44 (starts at $74.99 for 1TB, $123.99 for the 2TB version we tested) proved its mettle at general storage tasks in our benchmarking tests, although it lagged on our tests of 4K write speed. This DRAM-less internal SSD, equipped with a graphene heat spreader, is one of the few available in capacities up to a whopping 8TB, but you want to avoid that top capacity unless you have money to burn or an overriding need for such voluminous storage. You get a much better deal per gigabyte with the 2TB or 4TB models.

Design: 8TB, if You Need It

The TeamGroup MP44 is a four-lane PCI Express (PCIe) 4.0 NVMe internal SSD manufactured on an M.2 Type-2280 (80mm long) "gumstick" printed circuit board. It employs the NVMe protocol over the PCIe 4.0 bus, and features YMTC 232-layer TLC flash memory and a Maxio MAP1602 controller. (Puzzled by any of this lingo? Check out our handy guide to SSD terminology.)

The MP44 is one of a growing group of internal SSDs whose controllers lack its own dynamic random access memory (DRAM), instead relying on the computer's memory for caching. A common concern with DRAM-less SSDs is that their architecture could impact write speeds; our testing, in this case at least, seems to bear that out, as you'll see below.

To help cool the drive, the MP44 is equipped with a graphene heat-spreader sticker affixed to the top. TeamGroup promotes this as an enhancement to the heat dissipation of a motherboard's heatsink. It's not a a substitute for a heatsink, though—if your motherboard don't have a spare heatsink, you will want to get a third-party model. When equipped with a compact heatsink, it should fit the spare M.2 slot in a Sony PlayStation 5—it meets Sony's requirements for a PS5-friendly SSD. (Just be sure that the drive with heatsink attached doesn't exceed the 11.25mm maximum height to fit in the PS5's case.)

In the chart below, you'll find the pricing, durability, and throughput speed information about the MP44 in its available capacities, up to a gargantuan 8TB. (TeamGroup also makes a 512GB version of the drive, but it is not sold in the United States.)

The sweet spot for both throughput speeds and cost per gigabyte is in the 2TB and 4TB sticks. The MP44's rated read and write speeds tail off somewhat when you make the leap to 8GB, and the cost per gigabyte between either the 2TB or 4TB and the 8TB model nearly doubles. In absolute terms, 11 cents per gigabyte isn't bad, but it's a steep price increase between capacities, bringing the sticker price for 8TB up to close to $900.

The MP44's durability ratings, expressed in terms of lifetime write capacity in total terabytes written (TBW), are among the best we have seen on an internal SSD. Among the handful of currently available drives with higher durability ratings are the Corsair Force Series 600 (rated at 1,800TBW for 1TB and 3,600TBW for 2TB) and the MSI Spatium M470 (rated at 1,600TBW for 1TB and 3,300TBW for 2TB). At the other extreme, the Mushkin Delta, which uses less-durable QLC memory, is rated at just 200TBW for 1TB, 400TBW for 2TB, and 800TBW for 4TB. More typical are the 600TBW and 1,200TBW ratings, for 1TB and 2TB, respectively, of the Crucial T500, Crucial P5 Plus, Samsung SSD 990 Pro, and WD Black SN850X.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The terabytes-written spec is a manufacturer's estimate of how much data can be written to a drive before it starts to fail. TeamGroup warranties the MP44 for five years or until you hit the rated TBW figure in data writes, whichever comes first. You're unlikely to write enough data to exceed the exceptionally high TBW rating, but it does give an added sense of security.

Testing the TeamGroup MP44: Swift Enough, But Lacking the Write Stuff

We test PCIe 4.0 internal SSDs using a desktop testbed with an MSI X570 motherboard and AMD Ryzen CPU, 16GB of Corsair Dominator DDR4 memory clocked to 3,600MHz, and a discrete Nvidia GeForce graphics card. We put the TeamGroup MP44 through our usual suite of solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, and 3DMark Storage.

Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. On these tests, the MP44 effectively matched its rated read speed and fell about 5% short of its write-speed rating. That score still puts it in the lower middle among our comparison group of elite PCIe 4.0 speedsters that you see in the tables below.

Crystal DiskMark's 4K read test measures how long it takes to access a group of files in 4K cluster sizes. While the MP44's read score on this test was in the middle of our group of comparison drives, its 4K write score was the lowest. Good 4K write performance is especially important for an SSD used as a boot drive, though we test them as secondary drives.

The PCMark 10 Overall Storage test measures a drive's speed in performing a variety of routine tasks such as launching Windows, loading games and creative apps, and copying both small and large files. The MP44 did well, tying the Crucial T500 on this benchmark, ahead of a closely packed group of PCIe 4.0 speedsters.

We also include results from PCMark 10's trace testing, which evaluates some of the individual components that go into the overall score. The MP44 generally did well in the traces, effectively tying the Addlink AddGame A93 for the Windows boot high score among our comparison SSDs. It did worst in our small-copy test, narrowly losing to several other drives for the low score among our group.

In the 3DMark Storage benchmark, which measures a drive's proficiency in a variety of gaming-related tasks, the MP44's results were in the middle of a narrow range of scores in which most of our elite PCIe 4.0 SSDs have landed.

Need Lots of Room? Be Prepared to Pay

The DRAM-less TeamGroup MP44 internal SSD posted high throughput speeds and turned in a high mark among the PCI Express 4.0 speedsters we compared it with on the PCMark 10 Overall benchmark, which measures an SSD's aptitude at a range of workaday storage tasks. In individual tests its performance was mixed; it posted a high Windows boot score but low marks in the 4K write and small-file copy tests. The MP44 is one of the rare internal SSDs we have encountered that is sold in capacities up to 8TB, but there is a catch: While the 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models are all modestly priced, the cost per gigabyte of the 8TB version is nearly twice that of the 2TB and 4TB sticks, putting it out of range of most budget-conscious buyers—the 4TB version is at the happy medium between storage volume and price.

The TeamGroup MP44 is similar to the Editors' Choice-winning Addlink AddGame A93, a DRAM-less budget drive that maxes out at 4TB. The A93 adds a full heatsink, did much better on our random 4K write testing, and can fit in a PS5. But if you need to max out your capacity and are willing to pay for it, the MP44 is the way to go.