The Silicon Power P34A80 SSD Review: Phison E12 With Newer Firmware
by Billy Tallis on February 28, 2019 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- SSDs
- Storage
- Toshiba
- Phison
- Silicon Power
- M.2
- NVMe
- 3D TLC
- PS5012-E12
Mixed Random Performance
Our test of mixed random reads and writes covers mixes varying from pure reads to pure writes at 10% increments. Each mix is tested for up to 1 minute or 32GB of data transferred. The test is conducted with a queue depth of 4, and is limited to a 64GB span of the drive. In between each mix, the drive is given idle time of up to one minute so that the overall duty cycle is 50%.
The Silicon Power P34A80 has slightly better performance on the mixed random IO test than the Corsair MP510 with earlier firmware, but the overall standing for the Phison E12 drives hasn't changed: they're still slower than most of the other high-end NVMe drives, but clearly outperform the entry-level NVMe drives and SATA drives.
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| Power Efficiency in MB/s/W | Average Power in W | ||||||||
Power efficiency has changed little with the new firmware. The P34A80 and Corsair MP510 are both significantly more efficient on this test than the entry-level NVMe drives, but they fall far short of what the WD Black SN750 delivers with the same 3D TLC NAND.
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Compared to the Corsair MP510, the Silicon Power P34A80 improves performance on a few of the more write-heavy mixes but otherwise behaves identically. The WD Black offers the same performance on the read-heavy and balanced mixes, but pulls ahead as the workload becomes more write-heavy. The Samsung and ADATA drives are able to outperform the P34A80 across the entire range of mixes.
Mixed Sequential Performance
Our test of mixed sequential reads and writes differs from the mixed random I/O test by performing 128kB sequential accesses rather than 4kB accesses at random locations, and the sequential test is conducted at queue depth 1. The range of mixes tested is the same, and the timing and limits on data transfers are also the same as above.
The Silicon Power P34A80 performs about the same as the Corsair MP510 on the mixed sequential IO test. That leaves the two drives in the top performance tier, but they're the slowest drives within that tier: the fastest drive is about 15% faster than the P34A80.
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| Power Efficiency in MB/s/W | Average Power in W | ||||||||
The Phison E12 drives have great power efficiency on the mixed sequential IO test, second only to the WD Black SN750. However, the P34A80 again uses a bit more power than the Corsair MP510 and thus has the lower efficiency score of the two.
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The P34A80's performance over the course of the mixed sequential IO test closely matches that of the Corsair MP510 with the earlier firmware. This pattern continues to be quite unusual, with performance peaking on the write-heavy mixes where most drives are at their worst, and sub-par performance on the most read-heavy mixes where other high-end NVMe drives are far faster.
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stanleyipkiss - Thursday, February 28, 2019 - link
5 year warranty is pretty good for the price.XabanakFanatik - Friday, March 1, 2019 - link
Where did these mysterious benchmark results in the charts for the 970 PRO 1TB come from? There still hasn't been a review posted for it.IndianaKrom - Sunday, March 3, 2019 - link
I noticed that as well, and I actually have a 970 Pro / 1 TB. I got it a couple months before the 970 EVO Plus was announced and was kind of kicking myself for spending more on it figuring the EVO Plus was probably the same or better performance for less, but turns out the Pro still reigns supreme in everything but burst writes.Luckz - Wednesday, December 4, 2019 - link
Note that those are now likely made with E12S instead of E12, half the DRAM, and 96L instead of 64L flash, so performance will vary and be worse in some use cases than what is reviewed here.schevux - Monday, January 6, 2020 - link
Hey what do you mean by that ? How much the performance would change ? I am considering this over 970 evo by these benchmarks but if the performance would be worse i would go with 970 evo. Thanks.msroadkill612 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
Ta for the heads up. am now leery of SP. that stuff is not cricket (kosher).quakerj - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
I would get the 970 Evo. I ordered a 1TB P34A80 and received it today. It is nothing like what has been reviewed here. Flash chips have the marking "Unic2 UNN1TTE1B1JEA1." I think that's Chinese flash, Google isn't very helpful other than providing a link to Unic2 flash manufacturer, a Chinese website. Additionally my card contains Nanya DDR3 DRAM modules, not DDR4 like the reviewed model. Seems like a classic bait and switch. It's getting sent back to Amazon in a fast second, I would avoid like the plague.msroadkill612 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
I misposted this -Ta for the heads up. am now leery of SP. that stuff is not cricket (kosher).
i cant see why a noname cant do a decent e12 product, but not this thanks.
quakerj - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
For what it's worth, a major redesign warrants a new model number or revision suffix. If you go and buy this, it's not going to perform like the reviewed model, there are simply too many changes. It'll be a fast SSD no doubt, but I think SP pulled a fast one here and should be more transparent about the changes. They still advertise all these [original card] reviews on their website as though you're going to receive the same product. Just my humble opinion...Mueller - Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - link
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