I have an XPS laptop with a PM961 NVMe 256GB drive, but need to replace it with a 1TB size drive. I would like the replacement to not be a regression in performance compared to the original, but most premium PCIe 3.0 SDDs are costly. Can I replace it with PCIe 4.0 drive and expect to see benchmarks equal or better than the original?
Hi Andrew,
It depends on what you are going for in benchmarks. Are you looking for high sequential performance or does real-world matter more to you?
The PM961 is no slouch and actually produced pretty good performance for its day.
If you want sequential performance, then a PCIe 4.0 drive will max out your laptop 100%, but if real-world matters at all, you can save a bit of money and look at drives like the SN550 from WD or M9P+ from Plextor.
Last updated: Nov 3, 2020 at 08:10 pm CST