Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB SSD Review - The Throughput Leader

1. Introduction & Drive Details
2. Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO
3. Real-World Testing: Transfers, Gaming, PCM10
4. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 98%

The Bottom Line

If you want the the highest storage throughput on the planet, then you want a 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530.

Buy at Amazon

Introduction & Drive Details

Seagate's newly launched FireCuda 530 series is showing itself to deliver unprecedented throughput at every capacity point. Today we have in hand what is likely to be the fastest capacity point of the FireCuda 530 Series. As fast as the 1TB model is, the 2TB model is even faster and presented us with the following numbers when we benched it on our RYZEN 5900X system:

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This is the first time we can get those kinds of sequential speeds while running as our "C" drive. We've done it before, but only with empty secondary drives. As we see it, this is quite an accomplishment for Seagate's latest and greatest. It could even be said that this drive at this capacity point is currently the world's fastest flash-based SSD in terms of overall throughput. Impressive.

Seagate's FireCuda 530 series has caused quite a buzz in the PC enthusiast world, but it goes further than bleeding-edge PC performance. PlayStation 5 enthusiasts are also taking notice of Seagate's fastest SSD ever due to its class-leading sequential read speeds. Now you could take the drive we are testing today, stick an aftermarket heat sink on it and start shredding on your expansion-enabled PS5, but we recommend you grab the forthcoming FireCuda 530 versions with an integrated heat sink instead.

Drive Details

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We previously noted the extremely high endurance rating for the 1TB model, but wow, look at what it is for the 2TB model. With more than 2.5 petabytes of rated endurance, it's going to be hard to wear this thing out that's for sure.

Jon's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XIII HERO - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: Intel Core i9-11900KF - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: XPG DDR4 D50 Xtreme 5000MHz 16GB (8GB x 2) - Buy from Amazon
• Video Card: Zotac 2080Ti AMP Edition - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 1000W 80+ Gold Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Buy from Amazon

Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$229.00	$229.00	$239.99	$229.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 3/25/2023 at 3:10 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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As noted on the benchmark screenshot above, the 2TB FireCuda 530 is the world's first retail SSD capable of delivering 7,000 MB/s read AND 7,000 MB/s writes. An amazing feat and serves to cement the fact that Seagate's 2TB FireCuda 530 is indeed the current flash-based throughput leader.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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We've always said that our primary focus when looking at Anvil results, or any synthetic results for that matter, is read performance. After all, host reads are 80% of typical consumer data transactions, and as such, it could be said that read performance is 4X more important than programming or writes. With this in mind, we've decided to no longer chart write scoring or total score. We find write scoring, at least for this test, to be irrelevant, right up there with write saturation testing on consumer SSDs.

Overall read performance by E18 powered SSDs with 96Layer flash has never been that great. But this is a new day, and as our chart shows, 176Layer flash is bringing with it overall read performance that is good as it gets. Wow.

ATTO

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Chalk up a new lab record for sequential 128K write performance as measured by version 4 of ATTO disk benchmark. The top eight spots on our write chart have one thing in common; a Phison E18 controller is at the helm.

We find the same common denominator when we examine the top eight spots on our read chart as well. E18 powered domination.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, Gaming, PCM10

Transfer Rates

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The 2TB FireCuda 530 dishes out a new lab record for this particular hardware/software combination by beating out the very powerful WD Black SN850.

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Serving data to the host is something Seagate's FireCuda 530 series does as good as it gets. Impressive.

Game Level Loading

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to the majority of DIY consumers, especially to the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. This is where the 2TB Seagate FireCuda has no equal in terms of flash-based performance. As we see it, our test subject is THE gaming leader. PS5 lovers, take note.

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. The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

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This particular test writes over 204GB 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 including 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.

Two of the top three spots on our chart are populated with FireCuda 530 SSDs. This really speaks to the kind of overall user experience Seagate's newest can deliver. Elite performance.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

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Anytime a drive scores higher than 3,500 points on this test, we consider it to be elite. Elite performance where it matters most is what the FireCuda 530 Series is all about.

Final Thoughts

It wasn't hard to imagine the 2TB FireCuda would rip through our benchmarks at a record-setting pace. After all, it was just a few days ago that its smaller 1TB sibling lit up our charts, and the 2TB model we tested today is known to be faster. The 2TB FireCuda 530, in our opinion, clearly established that it is without question the current overall throughput leader. No other flash-based consumer SSD can deliver read/write throughput exceeding 7GB/s. Then to do so while running as our OS disk with 150GB data is unprecedented.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage tests. We consider a user experience score of over 7K to verify an SSD as TweakTown Elite. To date, only seven flash-based SSDs have attained this status, and two of them are Seagate FireCuda 530's.

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In every way we tested it, the Seagate FireCuda 530 delivered chart-topping results, but some results stand out more than others. If we had to choose one performance over all the rest, it would have to be our game test where the 2TB FireCuda 530 laid waste to the competition. We believe it to be the best flash-based gaming SSD money can buy. That alone makes it worthy of our highest award but wait; there is more.

TweakTown elite is a special status we bestow upon an SSD that can score 7,000 points or higher on our user experience ranking. The 2TB FireCuda 530 scored 7,580, making it TweakTown elite and worthy of our highest award.

Pros

• Sequential Speeds
• Gaming
• User Experience

Cons

• None