TeamGroup T-Force GA Pro 2TB SSD Review - A Viable Alternative

TweakTown Rating: 90%

Our Verdict

For the price, it's tough to beat the TeamGroup T-Force GA Pro 2TB SSD.

Pros

• Pricing
• Sequential throughput performance
• Random throughput performance

Cons

• Poor PS5 performance
• Double-sided PCB

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Drive Details

TeamGroup's T-Force GA Pro is the company's latest PCIe Gen5 offering. The T-Force GA Pro SSD is set to compete in the 10,000 MB/s class of SSDs with the likes of Corsair's MP700 Elite and Crucial's P510 DRAMless offerings. The GA Pro, however, is coming to the fight with onboard DRAM and at a significantly lower price point than either of those two competitors.

Onboard DRAM in this case does little in the way of providing better performance than its DRAMless competition, so where we see the real advantage going for the GA Pro is, like its T-Force GE Pro and T-Force GC Pro predecessors, the GA Pro offers a 10-20% lower price point than its direct competition.

Like the T-Force GE Pro and GC Pro, the GA Pro is powered by InnoGrit's IG5666 PCIe Gen5 x4 eight-channel controller. This Chinese-developed and made PCIe Gen5 controller is made on a 12nm process, making it compact and relatively power efficient while at the same time capable of delivering over 14,000 MB/s sequential throughput when paired with a fast flash array.

So, again, what we have in the T-Force GA Pro is a dialed-back offering of its immediate predecessors at an even better price point. We imagine that by dialing back sequential throughput from the 14,000 MB/s throughput that the IG5666 can deliver to a more moderate 10,000 MB/s results in a more power-efficient and, by extension, a cooler-running SSD than its IG5666-controlled predecessors, the GE Pro and GC Pro.

Okay, now let's dive in and see what TeamGroup's T-Force GA Pro 2TB T-Force GA Pro 2TB can do for you by the numbers.

Drive Details

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Stated performance and endurance are both excellent, as is its 5-year limited warranty.

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Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

AMD Test System

Please note: We employ an M.2 AIC for testing on our Intel Core Ultra 9 285K platform.

Sony PlayStation 5 - M.2 Storage Expansion

PS5 Read Performance

With Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 5 console now enabled for M.2 NVMe SSDs to be used as fast storage expansion, we are including results for PS5-compatible SSDs we test as a part of our reviews going forward.

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For SSDs that don't have an adequately sized PS5-compatible heatsink or other SSDs where the heatsink provided doesn't fit right and can be removed, we both use and recommend Sabrent's unparalleled PS5 heatsink available HERE.

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We only chart SSDs that can deliver a minimum of 5,500 MB/s read, which is Sony's original recommendation.

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Here we see, as with its predecessors, the GA Pro doesn't deliver well enough to make the chart.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Max IOPS, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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We employ CDM as our standard measurement for both sequential throughput and Q1T1 random read. In terms of sequential throughput, the drive delivers exactly as advertised and then some, even in our more demanding user state. We are getting up to 600 MB/s read and a whopping 1,200 MB/s write throughput, better than advertised. Excellent.

Zeroing in on the all-important Q1T1 random read speed, our 2TB contender is delivering a very respectable 103 MB/s.

Max IOPS

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TeamGroup, for some reason, doesn't advertise maximum random performance. They should, as the GA Pro delivers quite well here.

ATTO

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ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of QD4 sequential throughput. We chart 128K transfers. At a queue depth of four, the T-Force GA Pro 2TB favors sequential transfers of 4MB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) and 2MB or larger when programming (writing) data. We would like to see better small file performance here.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data; ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance, random or sequential, is an infrequent operation, and as such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example is how many times a game is installed vs. how many times it's played.

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Unlike programming (writing) data, serving data to the host (reading) is typically an important performance metric as it relates to the consumer space. This is where transfer rates matter most, and we like what we see from our test subject, and this is one place where its onboard DRAM may give it the upper hand vs. the MP700 Elite and P510.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing. In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to most DIY consumers, especially for the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. Now we've reached the point where results start to matter as they are a direct reflection of user experience.

Here our test subject shows that it is indeed a capable and decent choice for gaming duties. Not quite as good as the MP700 Elite or the P510, but within range to where its lower price point may give it the nod as a better value proposition.

Additionally, worth noting is the fact that the GA Pro is significantly outperforming its faster relative, the GC Pro.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them. The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

This test writes 204GB of data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games such as Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data, which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

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Here the GA Pro and the more expensive GC Pro perform identically. Both deliver average to above-average moderate consumer workload performance.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test.

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Of all the benchmarks we run, it can be argued that this one offers the best reflection of a typical consumer use case scenario. There we go. Our test subject's performance here is excellent, and this is where we want to see the goods delivered most of all. It easily outperforms the MP700, P510, and absolutely demolishes the faster GC Pro. This is performance that matters.

Final Thoughts

As we see it, TeamGroup's T-Force GA Pro 2TB is an interesting SSD. It's priced extremely well for a 10,000 MB/s class SSD with onboard DRAM. We rarely ever see SSDs with onboard DRAM priced lower than DRAMless offerings within the same speed class, but that's exactly what we have in the GA Pro, and as we just saw with our final benchmark, it does indeed deliver the goods where it matters most.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. Currently, we consider a user experience score of 17K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer.

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For the price, the TeamGroup T-Force GA Pro 2TB is hard to beat, earning our Best Value Award.