The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
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 SanDisk Optimus GX 7100M Gen4 2TB SSD returned with a Total Score of 3564 which placed it amongst the bottom third of SSDs tested to date.
3D MARK MS DIRECT STORAGE FEATURE TEST
As our SanDisk Optimus GX 7100M Gen4 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 130.1% faster transfer of data than with MS DirectStorage disabled.
SanDisk provides, totally free of charge, an SSD utility named the SanDisk SSD Dashboard which allows for maintenance and upkeep of your SanDisk SSD. SanDisk also provides Acronis True Image free of charge to allow for a totally seamless migration to your new SanDisk SSD. Simply click the title above which contains the link!
REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
The SanDisk Optimus GX 7100M occupies a unique position in the SSD market. While it isn’t the fastest or most powerful drive available, it excels in a niche where options remain surprisingly limited. Designed in the compact 2230 form factor, it is an ideal upgrade for devices such as gaming handhelds, consoles, and ultrabooks that rely on this smaller SSD size.
That niche is more significant than it may seem. I experienced it firsthand when I considered purchasing a Dell XPS a while back. At the time, the lack of high-performance 2230 SSDs capable of meeting my storage and performance expectations ultimately discouraged me from buying the system. Today, drives like the SanDisk Optimus GX 7100M help fill that gap, giving users of compact devices a viable upgrade path that simply wasn’t available until recently.
With that in mind, the SanDisk Optimus GX 7100M is a PCIe Gen4 SSD capable of sequential read speeds exceeding 7,200 MB/s and delivering up to 1.4 million IOPS. Those are impressive specifications for a drive in the compact 2230 form factor, demonstrating just how far this category has evolved.
The drive’s MSRP is less compelling, but the street pricing we found on Amazon is considerably more attractive. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Canadian buyers. As a Canada-based publication, we’ve long observed that SSD pricing north of the border often carries a significant premium. For example, the 2TB model can be purchased in the United States for around $449 USD (approximately $638 CAD), while the identical drive is listed on Amazon Canada for $1,214 CAD—the equivalent of roughly $853 USD. That kind of price disparity is difficult to justify and represents poor value for Canadian consumers. Even so, the 5-year warranty on this SSD is a definite plus.
CHECK SANDISK OPTIMUS GX 7100M PRICING ON AMAZON
