Should I Buy a Gen 4 SSD for My Gen 3 Laptop?

Questions about buying a gen 4 SSD NVMe for your Gen 3 laptop? Gen 3 or Gen 4 SSD is the question for Gen 3 PC and Laptops. Wondering what the numbers look like? Had lots of questions about them numbers and so in this video I review a quick test of Gen 4 NVMe SSD in a Gen 3 Laptop. I use my XPS 9570 with a Samsung 970 Evo Gen 3 SSD and compare it to a Western Digital SN850 Gen 4 SSD.
0:00 Start
0:15 Intro to Gen 4 SSD in a XPS 9570
1:17 Explaining the Testing
1:38 Safe mode Windows Test Speeds
3:25 Windows Test Speeds
4:01 Gen 4 drive in PC with Gen 3 speeds
5:08 Explanation of Gen 3 vs Gen 3 Speeds and software
7:57 What to buy? My thoughts on buying Gen 3 vs Gen 4 for Gen 3 systems
Check out my video on SSD upgrade before and after. The Benefit of a Faster NVMe: • SSD upgrade before and...
How to Install an NVMe SSD in a Laptop | DIY
• How to Install an NVMe...
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[@shlomilevi1457]

Exactly the video I was trying to find, showing the difference not only on SEQ, gen3 vs gen4. Thank you!

[@bobleguy]

Well said, thanks. Seeing more gen 4's cheaper than gen 3's lately, so this was helpful

[@NikosRentas]

Glad it helped. What did you end up getting?

[@bobleguy]

@@NikosRentas 100% ordering the cheaper 4tb Gen4 to run on my Gen3 board. Gotta use that reverse compatibility while it lasts, I'm sure our grandkids will need to buy a factory-installed matched pair, log into their Gen89 account w/ retinal scan & semen sample. And for some reason still have to pay Adobe $120 / month for the privilege 😑

[@GoodGuysMedia]

Appreciating your choice to put things into perspective at the end.

[@NikosRentas]

Yeah, I have been trying to make the videos more or less based on smart decision purchases. It sometimes is hard to decide!

[@GoodGuysMedia]

Your explanation of random vs sequential 👌makes so much sense

[@NikosRentas]

Perfect! kept getting questions so have been trying to break it down the best I can!

[@williamlau7179]

Now May 2023, buying 1tg kingston fury gen4 tlc $82 n nv2 gen3 qlc $42 for current gen3 slots both for a laptop casual data base use. Putting in an old samsung 860 evo sata 256 gb for system drive that a few seconds longer startup is not an issue. Nowaday ssd are much cheaper that before. But now other comparable ssd are 30% more costly than the kingston. 🍻 Good video clear presentation n good man 🍻

[@sergefedorow8430]

My choice of 980 pro for XPS 9500 gen3 is not about speed, it is about almost 10 degrees lower temperature vs 970 evo plus.

[@ishansingh3575]

In July'2018 I bought 256 GB SATA Crucial MX500 it worked as only drive for my coding laptop when i sold my laptop i got 50% life of that drive was finished and it started to slow down

[@porter761]

Great explanation 👌

[@porter761]

I wonder if I'm putting an 980 nvme gen4 in to an pcie gen 4 controller would it run gen 4 speed or only if the bios can do gen 4 ,as now have only gen 2 or 3 ?

[@NikosRentas]

Only if the it has gen4 pcie lanes. If it doesn't it will revert to gen 3 speeds

[@rana1561]

That was a nice n precise explanation about non sequential demands, I know it's an old video, I hope you could tell if gen4 ssd on a gen3 slot would run at lower temperatures?

[@scottyfett6750]

i havent updated to gen.4 yet. gen three tops out at 3500. which to me is perfect already. 7000mbs would be something that would be useful for someone who deals with large amounts data/storage/transfers.

[@samanthagriffinv2.08]

Exactly when people would do load test or blind test people would pick the slowest ssd as what they think would be the fastest ltt did a video like that imo 3500 MB/s is more then enough for most people even then maybe over kill

[@hiriotapa1983]

Now there's not many good gen3 drives anymore, so it makes more sense to buy a cheap and reasonably good gen4 with near max gen3 speeds, such as Silicon Power UD85/90, Crucial P3, Solidigm P41 Plus, etc.

[@NikosRentas]

Yeah, with the new drives coming the gen 4 will be even cheaper basically replacing gen 3. Its a waiting game

[@ramshacks9493]

can we get a real competition samsung 970 pro vs 980 pro on gen 3 slot that would be interesting

[@rswow]

And now the 990 pro is out with faster speeds and less power use. Quote: Maximized PCIe® 4.0 speed. Huge speed boost. Get random read/write speeds that are 40%/55% faster than 980 PRO. Experience up to 1400K/1550K IOPS, while sequential read/write speeds up to 7450/6900 MB/s reach near the max performance of PCIe 4.0.123. Fly high in gaming, video editing, 3D modeling, data analysis and more. Beakthrough power efficiency. More power-efficient performance. Get more performance while using less power. Enjoy up to 50% improved performance per watt over 980 PRO*. The champion maker. A more than 55% improvement in random performance1 enables faster loads for an ultimate gaming experience on PS5 and DirectStorage PC games2.

[@mmartoni]

Great explanation. You save me a lot of time! Thanks man.

[@thomas1699]

I have an Acer Aspire 5, i-5. It takes 1 Gen 3, NVME. It works, but it is not exciting, per se. Thinking I will put a Gen 4 NVME in it to replace the mediocre original. I am hoping the better compnents on the new drive will come into play, even with the limitations of the board. (Caching, TLC, controller, etc.) What do you think?

[@NikosRentas]

I would look up the actual computer on www.crucial.com/upgrades and see what it takes. The gen 4nvme will only work at those speeds if the board can handle that speed. There won't be such a big advantage otherwise. I compared them both on my nephews computer and it didn't change much.

[@thomas1699]

Thanks for your response. I decided to get an SK Hynix Gold, Gen 3, NVME drive. Acer actually uses that brand in some of their OEM drives and it is "the correct part" for the application. I will find something else to do with the Crucial P5 Plus that I already had. Thanks again.

[@samanthagriffinv2.08]

I have a wd black sn770 in my desktop and it runs at gen 3 and I get literally just over 3000 MB/s like it’ll be like 8 over or something and that’s on the read the write over 2200 so at least for me it doesn’t top out

[@NikosRentas]

Those have been good drives from what I hear.

[@samanthagriffinv2.08]

@@NikosRentas yeah it’s fairly nice right now mine has over 60 TB written and still going strong

[@NikosRentas]

nice! @@samanthagriffinv2.08

[@lolero123]

thank you for this video, very well explained :)

[@numbersix9477]

Q: Why not replace the 970 Evo with a 980 (non-pro)? A: Because the 980 is a QLC drive. in most respects, the best QLC drive will be inferior to the worst TLC drive (drive-write lifespan and SLC buffer-full situations especially). My hard and fast rule regarding QLC drives is ... DON'T purchase one. For me, the modest shavings don't offset the other costs.

[@khanscombe619]

That's kind of what I did. I took used gen4 Samsung 980 Pro & Plus to another ASUS Z590-i gen4 mobo locked into gen3 due to its 10th gen i9 & older 2080-TI PCIe 3 & SK-Hynix Gold P31 Pro to my 2015 MacBook Pro for its energy performance on battery. I didn't measure its reads but its better then whatever was in it. What about M.2 Nvme to SATA-3 SSD in say a Mac Mini? Wouldn't cheapest gen3 nvme or SSD max the bus out of the SATA-3 controller aside from apps? 600mb/s? I used to use SATA-3 on SATA-2 or SAS-2 back in the day & it helped.

[@NikosRentas]

You would think it would but the question is based on that "max". In the video my assumption was similar because I assumed the XPS is a top of the line and isn't being throttled by the company in their design.

[@thesoundsguy69]

Love this guy🖤🖤

[@NikosRentas]

Appreciate the support!

[@junandha89]

thank you for your video, truly helpful

[@amigatommy7]

Thanks. I'm considering the 5700g cpu to get around no graphics cards. B550 is recommended as the cpu supports gen 3.

[@NikosRentas]

I just took a look and it is pcie 3.0. I would definitely check out the Samsung 980 as it seems to be a faster drive

[@3iixirpm]

THX, you answer my big doubt, i have a MSI GL65 Leopard with pci3 and no sure if a Kingston pci4 would work ...

[@hamsanwich8754]

What if a laptop supports gen 4, would you recommend to go for a gen 3 or a gen 4 ssd? I’m worried about gen 4’s because they are recommended to be paired with a heat sink. Do gen 3’s face as much issues with temperatures ?

[@fuzzypanda1684]

Hmm, I have a gen 3 motherboard, I'm looking at a Samsung 970 EVO Plus (top end gen 3) or a WD Black SN770 (mid range gen 4). Which should I get, a top end gen 3 or mid range gen 4?

[@ridemfast7625]

What did you buy? The SN770 500gb is only $40 so Im thinking of that for my Gen 3 desktop. But the HP EX900 Plus 512GB is a bit slower and only $32. Dont think I would notice the difference since Im not a gamer...

[@fuzzypanda1684]

@@ridemfast7625 I went with the Samsung 970 EVO Plus and it's great, no problems so far. My other drive is the WD Black SN750 (not 770) that I bought several years ago. I can't notice any difference whatsoever between them so even though I'm not familiar with the HP EX900, I'm guessing you won't notice a difference. My only question would be why buy a 500gb drive? Unless you don't use it for much you'll fill that up in no time. I do a lot of video editing and game design so I fill space more than the average person, but I'd go for at least 1TB if I were you, unless price is the primary factor.

[@ridemfast7625]

@@fuzzypanda1684 Good question. I dont use the computer for much. In 4 years I have only used ~120gb total on a 1tb hard drive. I could use a 256gb ssd but the 512 is faster and will last longer for only a few dollars more. I will use the HD as a back up, cloning the ssd and HD, as their are some important apps and files.

[@graham4385]

anyone know if my laptop even supports gen 4 or if i should get one over a gen 3, i have a gateway i7 11800h laptop with an extra m.2 slot. i don’t care about speeds just extra storage for games and documents

[@NikosRentas]

You will need to look at the exact model and possible upgrades. I went to the website but only found this model: GGNC71719 and no documentation. TBH just reach out to them and ask for the information and what they recommend. Then take that and go find some drives on sale. Lastly, the gen 4 are backwards compatible so you can still use them on gen 3 and then when you upgrade have gen 4. The money question and what you find on sale on black friday.

[@jlun7076]

I have a dell g3 3579 laptop, several web pages tell me that I can put a gen 4 SSD, but when asking amazon, they tell me that my laptop would not use the full speed of the gen 4 SSD. I would like to know if my laptop accepts this type of SSD

[@user-cj8zp1xk9e]

can i use m2 sata ssd in PCIe NVMe 4.0 M.2 slot, or just ssd gen 3 can?

[@cdm297]

Thanks for a very informative video. I wanted to ask if xps 15 9510 supports gen 4 ssd. When we buy online, it by default comes with a gen 3 ssd. But with 11th gen processors, it should support gen 4 ssd but I could not find it anywhere. Since you have an xps, i thought to ask you.

[@NikosRentas]

Yeah it looks like Gen 3 only but when you go into the specs it doesn't specifically say it but shows gen 4 speed max capability. Some people online are saying they tested it with a gen 4 and it worked but didn't show numbers. The micron drive that comes with it is showing speeds of a gen 3 and i'm not sure. No information anywhere however, crucial is showing you can upgrade with Gen 4. www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/xps-15-%289510%29 I would call dell and ask to confirm or buy from a place you can return and test it out.

[@MuhFathanAnas]

So i have an ssd nvme gen 4 on my gen 3 slot laptop and i also can use it and keep it for my future pc to install it. It is still worth it after u install ssd gen 4 on ur laptop gen 3 slot then u have a pc in the future that support a gen 4 slot to replace it?

[@NikosRentas]

If I saw a sale on a Gen 4 that was close to a Gen 3 I would buy it instead. Mainly for the reason you are stating. The idea is upgradability in the future.

[@Waladhoolin]

But why mine only 1.7gb in read, and 1.5gb in write 😢?

[@jaswingnut]

I've a gen 3 slot in my laptop and I'm trying to decide between the samsung 980 1tb £76.50 and the crucial p5 plus 1tb £90. What would you recommend?

[@NikosRentas]

I would probably go for the Samsung. There were issues with the caching but seem to be fixed since the last firmware update. Some people report problems but not as much. The Crucial p5 has had some mixed reviews and I haven't tested. I would go for Samsung at that price. Make sure you test the drive to see if there are caching issues by loading lots of data to it.

[@20MaRk23]

I know you mentioned backwards compatible. Does that mean if I got a gen 3 ssd and eventually brought my new laptop with gen 4 motherboard drivers, will I still able to use my gen 3 ssd in it?

[@NikosRentas]

Yeah, so your are correct on that. So if you buy a gen 4 drive you can use it in a gen 3 device. If you buy a gen 3 drive you can use it in a gen 4 device. The speeds will be based on the device generation. So the new gen 4 drives in a gen 3 device will work to the speed of the gen 3 device. The gen 3 drives in a gen 4 device will work to the speed of the gen 3 drive.

[@20MaRk23]

@@NikosRentas perfect thank you 👍👍

[@thischannelisdeleted]

@@NikosRentas So if not interested in upgrading, there’s no reason to buy Gen 4?

[@ritadonita144]

Gen 4 NVME installed in PCIE Gen 3 laptop is wasted... The read speed is half of it should be

[@shiina011]

But if I'm using gen4 nvme for my gen3 laptop, is there going to be any hardware problem? That's my only concern :(

[@djmecaro]

There won’t be any problem since it is fully backwards compatible

[@King-IbnDragon]

Is there a way to get full Gen 4 Sequential read/write on a Gen 3 PCIe? Say, maybe a bios update or some other system hack? I'm asking for a friend.

[@donateme8749]

its a hardware thing, what you are asking is, wanna get a software update to make a 4GB ram laptop performs like 8GB ram, which isn't possible. Just like you can't download RAM for example

[@King-IbnDragon]

@@donateme8749 Got it. Thanks.

[@Bhagho_gamer_yt]

Pls tell me how I checked my laptop gen

[@tkkhan9700]

If I use gen 4 ssd in gen 3 motherboard as a boot drive. Will it cause any problems?

[@NikosRentas]

It is backwards compatible. So it shouldn't be an issue.

[@loganmain4244]

Limited by the hardware, now if you plan on ripping the drive and moving it forward when you update obsolete hardware, then gen 4. Otherwise just wasting money

[@akarmdit2267]

nohhhhhhhhhhhh

[@NikosRentas]

yahhhhhh lol

[@mostafamirzaei3235]

does my laptop support ssd m2 4 generation? HP OMEN Laptop - 17-cb1000ns Product number : 2S764EA can i buy sssd m2 Gen 4 for my laptop

[@NikosRentas]

Yeah looks like you can upgrade to two gen 4 drives and 64 gb of ram. I would run the scanner www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/hp---compaq/hp-omen-17-cb1000ns#ssd to confirm the model and see which exactly fits and if it is gen 4 then you can go with any of the gen 4 drives Here is a good video that is similar to your model. I would look for one that is the closest. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJ3XnoStgK6DlZI

[@mostafamirzaei3235]

@@NikosRentas thank you very much sir

[@NikosRentas]

No problemo!

[@mostafamirzaei3235]

@@NikosRentas thanks🙏