Mushkin Redline VORTEX PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Launched: Affordable Flagship
by Ganesh T S on March 18, 2022 6:30 AM ESTMushkin's lineup of PCIe 4.0 SSDs has largely remained a Phison affair. The Delta series was based on the Phison E16 and the Gamma on the Phison E18. Recently, the company launched a new series of PCIe 4.0 SSDs - the Redline VORTEX. The key here seems to be the usage of a new SSD controller - the Innogrit Rainier IG5236. It appears to be taking over the flagship mantle from the Gamma - besting it in both read and write random access IOPS and also sequential read speeds. However, unlike the Delta and Gamma, which came to the market in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB flavors, the Redline VORTEX series has three capacity points - 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. Detailed specifications are provided in the table below.
Mushkin Redline VORTEX SSD Specifications | |||
Capacity | 512 GB | 1024 GB | 2048 GB |
Controller | Innogrit IG5236 | ||
NAND Flash | ?? 3D TLC NAND | ||
Form-Factor, Interface | Single-Sided M.2-2280, PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 | ||
DRAM | 512 MB DDR4 | 1 GB DDR4 | 2 GB DDR4 |
Sequential Read | 6750 MB/s | 7430 MB/s | 7415 MB/s |
Sequential Write | 2635 MB/s | 5300 MB/s | 6800 MB/s |
Random Read IOPS | 200K | 390K | 730K |
Random Write IOPS | 645K | 1085K | 1500K |
SLC Caching | Yes | ||
TCG Opal Encryption | No | ||
Warranty | 5 years | ||
Write Endurance | 250 TBW 0.27 DWPD |
500 TBW 0.27 DWPD |
1000 TBW 0.27 DWPD |
MSRP | $78 (15.23¢/GB) | $125 (12.21¢/GB) | ?? |
The SSD adopts a graphene heat dissipating label for its thermal solution - typical for the price point targeted. The performance numbers (aided by dynamic SLC caching) make it suitable for content creation and gaming - workloads that typically benefit from the capabilities provided by PCIe 4.0 SSDs.
Mushkin is not the first to market with the Innogrit Rainier controller. The Patriot Viper VP4300 series and the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade were introduced late last year. While the Viper VP4300 is priced quite high, the Mushkin Redline VORTEX manages to undercut the XPG GAMMIX S70 blade by $12 at the 512GB capacity point and $5 at the 1TB point (based on current street pricing). The company is yet to announce availability and pricing for the 2TB SKU. The appearance of more affordable PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs in the market is good news for consumers.
28 Comments
View All Comments
deil - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
Well I wait for reviews, It would be good to know if this boils in laptops.brucethemoose - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
Yeah. I wish they would target/market some NVMe drives for power efficiency.Anand's power testing is great: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16012/the-sk-hynix-...
... but they cant cover every ssd.
teamet - Saturday, April 16, 2022 - link
that's the old anandtech :-(ballsystemlord - Monday, March 21, 2022 - link
I also wish to see this drive reviewed. Preferably in the 1TB capacity.Samus - Tuesday, March 22, 2022 - link
I've been waiting on a review of the Hynix P41 just for this reason. If it follows the footsteps of the P31, it will be exceptionally efficient and well suited for laptops. I'm still using a P31 as a carryover from my old notebook and it rarely exceeds 55C and generally idles at or under 50C. The stock drive that came in my notebook, a Samsung PM9A1, regularly hit 70C and throttled after transferring a few GB of files down to PCIe 3.0 speeds anyway, so it essentially wasn't even a downgrade outside of random burst performance (which isn't really my workload, I deal with large files)dwillmore - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
"make it sitable for content creation"Suitable, maybe?
dwillmore - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
Looks like you made the edit. You're welcome. :(StevoLincolnite - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
Anandtech might do benchmarks/reviews one day... Or I need to source better sites for my tech fix going forth.sandtitz - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
Unlike some other sites, Anandtech seems to only review stuff that is sent to them. Perhaps it's been like this always, but there used to be way more reviews in the past. Because the site is processing less reviews, the manufacturers are probably not interested in sending stuff to a niche sunset website anymore.Is it uneconomical to buy components for a review? More reviews and non-commercial articles would surely attract a bigger audience and thus more income. Today, besides the sponsored articles, this place is a ghost town, and I'm not exactly delighted with the monthly Intel/AMD executive interviews or the "best mobile phones for Spring 2022" articles which have supplanted the hardware reviews.
DigitalFreak - Friday, March 18, 2022 - link
This site went down the shitter when Anand left and sold it to Purch.