TeamGroup MP44L 1TB SSD Review - DRAMless Gamer

TweakTown's Rating: 95%

The Bottom Line

TeamGroup's MP44L presents an incredible value proposition not to be missed.

Pros

• + Gaming
• + Consumer workloads
• + MSRP

Cons

• - None

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Introduction & Drive Details

Traditionally DRAMless SSDs have been awful on the performance front, so much so that even the lower cost of participation has not been enough to offset the lackluster performance. Our opinion of DRAMless was totally not worth it. However, that all changed beginning with the launch of ADATA's ATOM 50, which was the first DRAMless PCIe Gen4 SSD to make its way to our test bench. What makes the ATOM 50 tick is its InnoGrit IG5220 DRAMless controller, which single-handedly changed our opinion of what DRAMless SSDs can be.

So far, we've experienced high-level DRAMless offerings powered by two of the three major third-party controller companies, InnoGrit and Silicon Motion. TeamGroup's newest offering represents our first taste of Phison's flagship DRAMless 4-channel PCIe Gen4 controller, the E21T. TeamGroup's MP44L is another in a plethora of B47R arrayed SSDs, just as the ATOM 50 is. So, this really gives us a perfect opportunity to evaluate the controller on its own. Who will come out on top? InnoGrit or perennial rival Phison?

TeamGroup is one of our favorite SSD retailers. We know from experience that if it is a TeamGroup offering, it's almost assuredly going to deliver as advertised and then some. Now, let's put some numbers to TeamGroup's newest face.

Drive Details

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Coming in at less than 10 cents per gigabyte for premium TLC is exactly what we want to see from a DRAMless offering. TeamGroup's pricing is on-point at release, which is really nice to see and somewhat uncommon as of late. Excellent.

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TeamGroup's MP44L M.2 PCIe SSD is its first product to feature TeamGroup's exclusive and highly effective, thermally conductive graphene coating on aluminum foil for the SSD label. The label on its own is very effective at dissipating heat and because the label is less than 1mm thick, it can be used in conjunction with any type of heat sink for even more efficient cooling.

Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Z690 HERO
• CPU: Intel Core i9-12700K - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

AMD Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we will present our storage performance results for the test subject on both Intel and 7000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, (Look Here), our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

TeamGroup MP44L 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$74.99	$74.99	$72.99	$74.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 12/26/2022 at 11:25 pm CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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AMD continues to deliver the highest sequential throughput, so it's no surprise to see AMD edging out Intel in terms of sequential throughput. Now focusing on a much more important performance metric, Q1T1 random read, we find our MP44L delivering quite nicely at up to 94 MB/s, indicating that the MP44L can potentially deliver performance that matters. Very nice.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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Scoring comes in somewhat lower than expected, but again, the fundamentals for performance that matters are there, as evidenced by its excellent low queue depth random read performance.

Moving over to all-out random read performance, we find TeamGroup's flagship DRAMless offering able to exceed stated up to max IOPS factory specs. This is significant because most SSDs can't attain factory max random read specs when running in our more demanding user state. Impressive.

ATTO

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More than anything else, ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of sequential throughput. As it is with all Phison-controlled SSDs, the MP44L is running full speed at 128K transfers. Additionally, because of Phison's core architecture, being the way it is when dealing with compressible data, the MP44L delivers kind of a faux throughput that lands it at the top of our chart, exceeding even its E18 brethren on our AMD platform.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data. Ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance random or sequential, as it relates to large transfers, is an infrequent operation. We do not consider it an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example is how often a game is installed vs. how often it's played. 1,030 MB/s is lower than expected but plenty good enough for our liking.

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Here again, lower than expected, but still well within an acceptable range for what it is. So far, we've witnessed the IG5220-controlled SSDs like the ATOM 50, FX900, and P400 generally outperforming the MP44L. However, up to this point, performance that matters most hasn't really come into play as it will with our remaining performance measurements.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is in fact the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing.

In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to the majority of DIY consumers, especially to the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. Here we find Phison's E21T delivering the best SSD-focused gaming performance of the third-party DRAMless contenders, defeating its main competition, the IG5220, by a whopping 13%. As it relates to SSD gaming duties, the MP44L is nearly on par with Samsung's 980 Pro; this is performance that matters. Outstanding.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them.

The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

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This particular test writes 204GB data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games, including Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

Heavy consumer workloads involving a mass amount of data have traditionally crippled DRAMless SSDs, but the MP44L doesn't suffer the same fate as most of those before it. TeamGroup's newest handles heavy consumer workloads better than many 7,000 MB/s capable SSDs and exactly on par with the IG5220-controlled SSDs. Excellent.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

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We see a very impressive result here considering the MP44L defeats every IG5220-controlled SSD we've tested to date and even manages to defeat every E18-controlled SSD. Impressive, as it, once again, is running within striking distance of Samsung's 980 Pro when performance matters.

Final Thoughts

As suspected, when TeamGroup offers up a new SSD, it's not going to disappoint. TeamGroup's MP44L 1TB represents the first SSD to come through the lab controlled by Phison's latest DRAMless controller, the E21T. The drive exceeded our expectations, where performance matters most, especially as it relates to gaming duties. As it relates to SSD gaming duties, the MP44L delivered the best we've seen from any third-party controlled DRAMless SSD to date. Impressive.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. We consider a user experience score of 12K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer.

While not an overall elite performer when compared with all SSDs, we still consider the MP44L one of the best DRAMless SSDs ever made, because, most importantly, it demonstrated it can significantly outperform the whole host of IG5220-controlled SSDs, its main competition.

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As we see it, TeamGroup's MP44L presents an outstanding value proposition earning it one of our highest awards.