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3D MARK STORAGE GAMING BENCHMARK
UL Solutions has created a new storage gaming benchmark that we will start to use as new SSDs come in. The 3DMark Storage Benchmark DLC extends 3DMark Advanced Edition with a dedicated component test for measuring the gaming performance of SSDs and other storage hardware. It supports all the latest storage technologies and tests practical, real-world gaming performance for activities such as loading games, saving progress, installing game files, and recording gameplay video streams.
The Acer FA300 Gen5 2TB DRAMless SSD did amazing with 6308 total points, placing it 7th of all SSDs tested to date. Again… you won’t find another DRAMless SSD on this chart!
3D MARK MS DIRECT STORAGE FEATURE TEST
As our Acer FA300 Gen5 2TB SSD is MS DirectStorage compatible, we thought we might take advantage of the 3DMark DirectStorage Feature Test and see how this SSD fared. MS DirectStorage, in very basic terms, allows direct transfer of data from your SSD storage directly to your GPU, eliminating its historical necessary passage from the SSD through the CPU to RAM, back through the CPU and finally to the GPU VRAM. This is, for the most part at this time, intended on faster game load times,reducing CPU overhead and providing more detailed graphics.
In our testing, data transfer achieved a 147.5% faster transfer of data than with MS DirectStorage disabled.
BIWIN INTELLIGENCE SSD MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
BIWIN is an SSD manufacturer that produces and sells Acer branded SSDs and RAM. The BIWIN INTELLIGENCE software program is probably the best free SSD utility we have used to date. This is the Drive Information screen for this software:
In addition to displaying Drive Health, temperature and Disk Usage, other menu options provide for Error Scan, Performance Optimization, Drive Erase with Secure Erase, Data Migration, Drive Clone, Firmware Update along with Performance test as shown here:
REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Going back to our initial report on the virtually identical SMI SM2504XT engineering sample SSD, something became very obvious. At that time, we didn’t know and weren’t allowed to address the memory on that SSD. If you look back at that report, you will see that the memory is covered up. At least in testing engineering samples, this actually makes alot of sense as the SM2504XT can accomodate a wide range of NAND manufacturers and configurations. There is something rather interesting about the Acer FA300 Gen5 SSD that we never expected though.
This is a value oriented SSD yet they chose to go with perhaps one the best memory options in the industry with BiCS8 218-layer 3D TLC NAND. This definitely goes against the grain of the recent industry transition to QLC NAND, at least with respect to value-driven SSDs. Even Acer’s iteration of the FA200 displayed their move to YMTC 232-layer 3D QLC NAND flash memory.
The Acer FA300 stands out as a true wolf in sheep’s clothing. Acer has long been known for delivering value-focused SSD with solid, affordable options, rather than top-tier contenders. But that reputation changes here. The FA300 combines outstanding performance, efficient cooling, and low power consumption thanks to its SMI SM2504XT Gen5 controller. Even more impressively, it features KIOXIA’s BiCS8 TLC NAND flash which is among the best in the industry. Such premium components are rare in this class of SSDs… until now.
The FA300 produced highs of just under 12GB/s throughput and 1700K IOPS, but more importantly, its test results were consistently right up there with DRAM-based upper tier SSDs. Highlights include the FA300 placing 4th in our Final Fantasy Game Load Time Benchmark and 7th of all SSDs tested to date in our 3DMark Storage Gaming Benchmark. As much as it would be nice to comment on pricing, we are fairly confident that it will be just as solid as Acer’s 5-year limited warranty. Editor’s Choice!!
CHECK FOR ACER FA300 GEN5 SSDS AT AMAZON
