Micron 9550 Max 12.8TB Enterprise SSD Review - G8 Flash at its Finest

TweakTown Rating: 98%

Our Verdict

Micron G8 flash has never looked so good.

Pros

• Up to 3.4 million RR IOPS
• Highest Sequential Write
• Best 8K Mixed

Cons

• None

Should you buy it?

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Introduction and Drive Details

Micron G8 (codenamed B58R) flash burst onto the scene well over two years ago, bringing with it a never-before-seen level of performance. Since then, this ground-breaking 6-plane flash has found its way onto countless SSDs, both consumer and enterprise. Our first experience with a G8 arrayed enterprise SSD came more than two years ago via Micron's own 6500 ION 30.72TB SSD. This encounter was well before PCIe Gen5 was a thing in the enterprise space and back when Micron 232-layer G8 flash was circulating around at 1,600 MT speeds.

From that day to this day, Micron B58R has been among the most sought-after and deployed flash the planet has ever witnessed. We've seen it so often that it's kind of become a standard of its own, we would venture to say, and with that said, we arrive at the SSD we have in the lab for testing today - Micron's current flagship Enterprise performance offering.

The 9550 series is Micron's first PCIe Gen5 Enterprise SSD. The drive was formally announced on July 23, 2024 as a cutting edge storage solution for AI workloads as follows:

"The Micron 9550 SSD represents a giant leap forward for data center storage, delivering a staggering 3.3 million IOPS while consuming up to 43% less power than comparable SSDs in AI workloads such as GNN and LLM training," said Alvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of Micron's Data Center Storage group. "This unparalleled performance, combined with exceptional power efficiency, establishes a new benchmark for AI storage solutions and demonstrates Micron's unwavering commitment to spearheading the AI revolution."

"Enhancing data center efficiency and performance for AI workloads is pivotal to reducing costs and ensuring reliable operations for enterprises everywhere," said Rob Davis, vice president of Storage Technology at NVIDIA. "With the integration of NVIDIA technologies, the Micron 9550 SSD can provide powerful storage for AI."

Since that announcement, Micron's 9550 has been gobbled up far and wide across the globe to power advancements in the AI revolution. In fact, it's been gobbled up so fast that it's taken a full year for us to even get our hands on one for testing. Well, today is the day we get to experience what Micron's PCIe Gen5 flagship enterprise offering can do.

Micron contends its 9550 PCIe Gen5 platform can deliver best-in-class performance, power, and high-capacity support, and that its 9550 is ideally suited for today's datacenter challenges and emerging HPC, Edge Computing, and AI applications. The PCIe Gen5 storage platform supports NVM Express 2.0b, and OCP Data Center NVMe SSD 2.5 specifications with firmware optimized for power and performance in standard form factors including E1.S (9.5/15/25 mm), E3.x, and U.2/3.

Additionally, the drive is available in both Pro (1-DWPD) and Max (3-DWPD) variants.

Specs/Comparison Products

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Micron 9550 Max 12.8TB PCIe Gen5 x4 E3.S SSD

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The drive we have in hand is a 3-DWPD design, E3.S form factor, 12.8TB in capacity, Micron G8 TLC arrayed, and 16-channel controlled. This configuration is rated for up to 3.3 million IOPS and up to 14 GB/s sequential throughput. Micron 9550 SSDs are compatible with major operating systems such as RHEL, SLES, CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server, and VMware ESXi.

Test System Specs & Enterprise Testing Methodology

Enterprise SSD Test System

Prior to the AI revolution, datacenter SSDs' normal operating range would typically never exceed QD32. With AI data pipeline storage being directed by GPU, high queue depth performance has become paramount. Queue depths in the thousands are now commonplace, which is why we've changed our test platform, methodology, and operating system. Our charted upper queue depth range has been revised from QD256 to QD4096 for random data and up to QD1024 for sequential testing.

Testing Methodology

TweakTown strictly adheres to industry-accepted Enterprise Solid State Storage testing procedures. Each test we perform repeats the same sequence of the following steps:

1. Secure Erase SSD
2. Write the entire capacity of SSD 2x (2 loops) with 128KB sequential write data, seamlessly transition to the next step (sequential testing skips step 3)
3. Precondition SSD by filling the drive twice with 4K or 8K random writes
4. Run test-specific workload with a 30-second ramp up for 5 minutes at each measured Queue Depth, and record average result

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Benchmarks - Sequential

128K Sequential Write/Read

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We precondition the drive with 100 percent sequential 128K writes at QD256 using 1-thread for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after a 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 128K sequential write performance at QD256 is approximately 11,400 MB/s.

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Micron specs its 9550 SSDs as capable of delivering up to 10,000 MB/s 128K sequential write throughput. We are getting a record-breaking 11,400 MB/s, so factory spec here is most definitely on the conservative side. Impressive.

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Here the drive is factory spec'd for up to 14,000 MB/s 128K sequential read throughput. We are hitting up to 14,733 MB/s. Excellent.

Benchmarks - Random

4K Random Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 4K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after a 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 4K random write performance at QD256 is approximately 530K IOPS.

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Our G8 arrayed 12.8TB model is rated at up to 720K 4K random write IOPS. We are getting up to 777K, so again significantly better than advertised.

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Factory spec here is up to 3,300K IOPS at QD512. We are getting 3,420K at QD512 with our configuration. This is the second-highest for any SSD we've encountered to date, with only the R6101 able to best it on the top end.

4K 7030

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Here our 12.8TB contender is delivering what we consider the second-best performance curve for any of the SSDs appearing on this chart. Its performance at queue depths of 128 and below is absolutely stellar.

4K 5050

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As we add more programming into the mix, our test subject responds with an even better performance curve. Outstanding.

8K Random Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 8K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after a 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 8K random write performance at QD256 is approximately 410K IOPS.

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We expect 8K random to track pretty much the same as 4K random here, just at a lower IOPS rate because it's moving twice the amount of data. Our test subject delivers more than half of what we saw at 4K. Excellent.

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As it was at 4K, so it is at 8K, with our test subject again delivering the second-best maximum random read performance of any SSD we've encountered to date. Impressive.

8K 7030

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8K 7030 is representative of a common database workload. No TLC arrayed SSD we've encountered can deliver a better performance curve here than the 9550 12.8TB. This is database workload performance on a higher level. Incredible.

8K 5050

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Again, no TLC arrayed SSD we've encountered can deliver a better overall 8K mixed performance curve.

Final Thoughts

We are thoroughly impressed by what the 9550 Max 12.8TB delivered for us today. First and foremost, it easily exceeds all its quoted up to factory performance specs. It delivers the highest rate of 128K sequential write performance we've ever encountered. Its 4K mixed workload performance is on par with the best of its kind we've ever seen and is, in fact, the very best at various queue depths. Additionally, and likely the most impressive of all, is the drive's 8K 7030 or Database workload performance, where it delivers by far the most superior performance curve of any TLC arrayed SSD we've ever seen. This is what Micron 6-plane flash brings to the table - superior programming speeds.

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Micron's 9550 Max 12.8TB E3.S SSD is an elite storage solution offering by far the best implementation of B58R flash we've ever seen (and we've seen a lot). Editor's Choice.