The Inogrit Ranier Gen4 NVMe SSD controller has been a huge success since the company officially came out of stealth mode. The success of this controller is a testament to the experience within the company. Their management team is led by their CEO, Dr. Zining Wu, who served as CTO before leaving Marvell, and most of his management team follows. At TSSDR we covered the initial launch of this controller in the XPG GAMMIX S70 , followed by the coolest SSD on the market today, the XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade , but by far the best example of this controller implementation Yes our Kioxia has the Plextor M10P NVMe SSD review .
Today is a new day and after weeks of hard work, our benches are hot and we have the latest "Ranier Controlled" Predator GM7000 2TB Gen4 NVMe SSD. but can't see that this new product seems to be a collaboration between Acer and BIWIN unless of course you bring a magnifying glass to the outer packaging itself. The exterior packaging is even a bit unique, as there's a hologram branding with numbers on the right side... we still can't figure out what it's for.
The Predator GM7000 is available in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. This SSD is a PCIe 4.0 x4 (quad-lane) M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor NVMe SSD using the NVMe 1.4 protocol. For the 2TB version we tested today, performance is listed as 7400MB/s read and 6700MB/s write and 700K read and write IOPS, all of which drop slightly at lower capacities.
The sample we received contained a black PCB (printed circuit board) with the top assembly covered with a very unusual padded foam material. We say unusual because we've developed the idea that this foam pad actually prevents heat dissipation from the components, as one typically sees with heat dissipation.
We'd love to go back or clarify from the company on this, but in our testing we had to remove it and test with a typical "aluminum block" heatsink. This still baffles us, and we wonder if this is the idea of incorporating this SSD into the PS5 gaming system.
The Predator GM7000 contains four Micron 96-layer TLC NAND flash, two on each side, an Innogrit 'Ranier' IG5236 12nm 8-channel NVMe SSD controller, and two 1GB NANYA DDR4-2666 DRAM cache buffers.
This SSD comes with a 5-year limited warranty, up to 1200TBW (Terabytes Written), AES encryption with end-to-end data protection, and 4K LDPC Error Correction (ECC). Predator also provides free Acronis software for proper migration to the new Predator SSD.
TSSDR's SSD tests vary slightly depending on whether we're looking at consumer or enterprise storage media. In today's test, we'll be evaluating the Acer Predator GM7000 on our latest Intel Gen4 testbed. Using our SSD optimization guide , this PC has been optimized to deliver the absolute maximum performance .
For this test bench, CPU C-States, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST), and Intel Speedshift (P-States) have not been disabled. As you'll see below, the system also hits 5.3GHz in its XMP 2 profile, with memory running at full speed.
The components of this test bench are detailed below. All hardware is linked to purchases and product sales with a single click of a single item. Again, the title links back to a single build article where performance tests can be validated. Clicking on the title below will take you to our full report on this new Gen 4 PC system.
| Computer case: | Corsair 5000X RGB White Tempered Glass Case |
| motherboard: | ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Z590 Hero Gen 4 |
| CPU: | Intel 11th Gen Core i9-11900K |
| CPU Cooler: | Corsair Hydro Series H150i Capellix White |
| power supply: | Corsair RM850x 80Plus White |
| Graphics: | ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity White |
| memory: | Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200 32GB |
| Storage: | Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Gen 4 4TB NVMe SSD |
| keyboard: | Corsair K70 RGB Mk. 2 SE White Gaming |
| mouse: | Corsair M65 RGB Elite FPS Gaming |
| Monitor: | Samsung 34" 1440p WQHD Ultra Wide Gaming |
The software analyzed today is typical of many of our reviews, including Crystal Disk Info, ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal Disk Mark, AS SSD, Anvil's Storage Utilities, AJA, TxBench, PCMark 10, PassMark Performance Test, Final Fantasy XIV Gaming BenchMark, and real data testing. The software we have chosen allows each to build on the last and provide validation for the results already obtained.
Crystal disk information version. 8.11.2 X64
Crystal Disk Info is an excellent tool for displaying storage device characteristics and health. It shows everything, including the temperature, the number of hours the device has been powered on, and even notifies you of the device's firmware.
Crystal DiskInfo verified that our SSD was running in PCIe 4.0 x4 using the NVMe 1.4 protocol and confirmed that it supports TRIM.
The ATTO disk benchmark is probably one of the oldest benchmarks out there, and is definitely a staple of manufacturers' performance specs. ATTO uses RAW or compressible data, for our benchmark we use a set length of 256mb and test read and write performance for various transfer sizes from 0.5 to 8192kb. Manufacturers prefer this test method because it deals with raw (compressible) data rather than random (including incompressible data), which, while more realistic, leads to lower performance results.
ATTO performance hit 6.67GB/s read and 6.33GB/s write, which is pretty fast for this ATTO benchmark.
Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance by sampling random data, which is incompressible in most cases. The performance is effectively the same regardless of the data sample, so we only include performance using random data samples.
Crystal DiskMark results are very strong, with throughput exceeding 7GB/s and 1 million IOPS.
The most rigorous benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD, as it relies only on incompressible data samples when testing performance. For the most part, the AS SSD test can be considered a "worst case" for obtaining data transfer speeds, and many enthusiasts prefer AS SSD for their needs.
Anvil's Storage Utility (ASU) is the most complete testing platform available for solid state drives today. The benchmark not only shows throughput, but also test results for IOPS and disk access time. Not only does it have preset SSD benchmarks, but it also includes things like endurance tests and threaded I/O read, write, and mix tests, all of which are very easy to understand and use in our benchmarks.
Relatively new to our test, the AJA Video Systems Disk Test tests the transfer speed of video files of different resolutions and codecs.
TxBench is one of our newfound benchmarks, and we work very similarly to Crystal DiskMark, but with several other features. Advanced load benchmarking can be configured, as well as complete drive information and data erasure via Secure Erase, Enhanced Secure Erase, TRIM, and Overwrite. Just click on the title to get a free copy.
The PCMark 10 storage benchmark produces an overall score as a measure of drive performance. Comparing devices is as easy as comparing scores. These tests also measure and report the drive's bandwidth and average access time performance. Each test uses traces recorded while performing real tasks, such as launching Windows 10, launching applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, using applications such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, and copying multiple large and many small files.
When comparing other drives we've tested on this Intel testbed, we can see why we rate the Plextor M10P with the same controller so highly.
The Quick System Drive Benchmark is a subset of the Full test and is more representative of typical daily usage to show what would be expected regarding hybrid SSD performance on a day-to-day basis.
The Predator GM7000 appears to be a mid-range competitor when looking at our PCMark 10 testing.
For our real data testing, we simply loaded 15GB of video, music, photos, and OS files onto a Acer Predator GM7000 2TB, then copied the data to a new folder on the same disk.
Our real-world data testing seems to show that the Predator GM7000 transfers video, pictures, and photos very quickly, but can be a bit slow for very small OS data files.
We thought we might add some extras to our report today, and the PassMark performance test DiskMark component is a nice addition. The software tests sequential reads and writes, as well as IOPS, and compares the results to millions of other SSDs around the world. We might suggest that a 99th percentile of all SSDs tested is a good result.
Final Fantasy Benchmark is a new tool in our arsenal aimed specifically at gamers. The software installs directly on the SSD and tests the SSD, providing final results in FPS and scene transition times.
Admittedly, I'm a fan of the Inogrit Ranier SSD controller, but for some reason, I felt like I was being blown a little out of my breath in this review. Don't get me wrong. The Acer Predator GM7000 Gen4 NVMe SSD performs to specification, with a high throughput of 7.1GB/s and over 1 million IOPS, the SSD is definitely a great addition to any gaming system.
Perhaps our hopes were a little higher for our review of the Plextor M10P, which stands out from the competition, trailing only the Intel Optane DC P5800x. We even put the Predator GM7000 into our AMD testbed just to confirm the 7400MB/s throughput spec:
And the heatsink... we're still working on that, and we're wondering if this is a last minute thought to make it a viable solution for the PS5. We felt it was necessary to remove it for better SSD performance, as our ATTO testing resulted in the SSD being throttled by heat from the factory-supplied "foam-filled" heatsink.
The Acer Predator GM7000 is an upper tier SSD capable of exceeding its listed specifications of 7400MB/s read and 6700MB/s write throughput and over 700k read and write IOPS. It comes with an industry-standard 5-year limited warranty and is available in a variety of capacities, including a future 4TB version. While we haven't seen pricing for the 2TB version just yet, the company has done its homework and the prices currently available are very competitive compared to other upper tier SSDs.
