AMD Radeon R7 SSD (240GB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on August 28, 2014 6:00 AM ESTFinal Words
To be frank, the R7 does not bring anything new to the table. Performance and feature wise it provides something in between the ARC 100 and Vector 150, but there's nothing earthshaking that would separate it from the masses. Sure, a four-year warranty is unique but with Samsung and SanDisk offering 10-year warranties in their high-end SSDs, the buyers who value a long warranty will likely choose something other than the R7.
| NewEgg Price Comparison (8/24/2014) | ||||
| 120/128GB | 240/256GB | 480/512GB | ||
| AMD Radeon R7 | $100 | $160 | $290 | |
| OCZ Vector 150 | $85 | $140 | $280 | |
| OCZ Vertex 460 | $90 | $140 | $245 | |
| OCZ ARC 100 | $75 | $120 | $240 | |
| Samsung SSD 850 Pro | $130 | $200 | $400 | |
| Samsung SSD 840 EVO | $90 | $140 | $250 | |
| SanDisk Extreme Pro | - | $200 | $380 | |
| SanDisk Extreme II | $70 | $140 | $295 | |
| Crucial MX100 | $80 | $123 | $220 | |
| Plextor M6S | $80 | $135 | $280 | |
| Intel SSD 730 | - | $190 | $340 | |
| Intel SSD 530 | $90 | $140 | $250 | |
The pricing does not make the R7 any better. Right now it is more expensive than the Vector 150, which provides higher performance and a longer warranty along with a higher endurance rating. The R7 must come down in price to make any sense, although even then the R7 will fall into the infamous middle-class. As I have said before, I only see two segments in the client market: the mainstream/value and the high-end market. In other words, the average Joe should just buy the SSD that provides the best value and frankly the MX100 has been dominating that market for the past couple of months. The high-end market, on the other hand, values absolute performance and features, and the R7 cannot compete with the 850 Pro and Extreme Pro there.
It is quite obvious that AMD is going after novice users with the R7 SSD. For someone with very little or no understanding of computers, the AMD branding can provide a peace of mind since AMD is fairly large and visible brand in the industry, but anyone who understands what they are buying should look elsewhere. To put it simply, there are better SSDs available for less money.
Ultimately AMD's biggest opportunity with the R7 SSD is bundles. I would not mind seeing the R7 as a part of an AMD component bundle because there is nothing wrong with the drive, but the pricing must be much more competitive than what the standalone drive currently is. If the total bundle price can put the cost of the SSD roughly in line with other value drives like the MX100, it provides good performance overall; it's just not worth the current price premium when purchased on its own.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
54 Comments
View All Comments
R 0 G - Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - link
I don't know why the samsung 840 Pro is absent form the benchies comparaison SSD list ! which would be the most interesting one !I Owns 3 SSD from OCZ and a beautiful old school golden DDR3 1600, none of them failed, Agility 3 240 GB was bought 3 years ago for 140 bucks when SSD s were very expensive and was already achieving 550 mbps transfer speeds, few BSODS though.
andrewbaggins - Monday, November 10, 2014 - link
Power Consumption charts are incomplete. SSDs spend most of their time in an Idle state. Your charts would be more helpful if they included simple Idle state power consumption. After all, millions of laptops and notebooks in everyday use do not have dev-slp or other advanced power options of the latest models, and those owners would be well-served knowing, for example, that a Samsung EVO draws much, much less power when idling compared to a Corsair Neutron GTX or Vertex 4, etc.andrewbaggins - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
OCZ went broke because they had to replace a huge, HUGE number of faulty drives, and many of those had to be replaced a second time! Cash flow could NOT sustain such overheads, and using their customers as guinea pigs for SSDs with half-baked controllers won them few admirers among bankers asked to back them when things started spinning out of control. MAYBE their drives are OK now and MAYBE they are much reliable, but those who were once/twice bitten are right to be twice/thrice shy of OCZ.Leyawiin - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
$99 now at Amazon. For the performance it has, warranty and accessories that's a pretty decent deal.