Product Name: XPG MARS 980 BLADE 1TB
Brand: ADATA
Offer price: 1039
Currency: MYR
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Features - 8/10
8/10
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Materials - 8/10
8/10
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Performance - 9.5/10
9.5/10
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Value - 8/10
8/10
Summary
The ADATA XPG MARS 980 BLADE is extremely fast in many regards, and we like the fact that it excels in sustained write performance in a way that very few models can achieve.
Overall
8.4/10Pros
+ Very fast read/write speeds + No complex cooling systems required + Great sustained write performance
Cons
– Double-sided design might not fit in thin laptops – Still permanent adhesive for heatsink application
Unboxing & Walkaround
We got a new ADATA SSD to test, this time the flagship XPG MARS 980 series which come in several variants: STORM (featuring an integrated cooling block), PRO (with an active cooling fan onboard), and BLADE, which is the one we have right here. The XPG MARS 980 BLADE is the only model without any form of active cooling, as the new PCIe 5.0 controller is power efficient enough that it doesn’t require one.
The controller in question is the Silicon Motion SM2508, a 6nm-based controller debuted last year that is capable of driving speeds up to 14,000MB/s, right on the limits of what PCIe 5.0 x4 channel can offer (it’s also among the first to not require active cooling). It’s coupled with onboard DRAM – we see two 1GB Samsung DDR4-2666 packages onboard with one situated on each side, and the same applies to the Micron 232-layer TLC NAND packages (rebranded as ADATA in this case), with four of them equally distributed on either sides of the M.2 2280-based PCB.
While the aptly-named XPG MARS 980 BLADE is, well, blade-slim especially compared to the actively-cooled variants, it’s still occupying a footprint of a double-sided SSD, with some extra thickness courtesy of the optional heatsink. Speaking of which, ADATA continues to utilize this 3M adhesive materials that really sticks on the surface once you apply it, so be very sure if you need it because removing it will be a difficult (and admittedly risky) process. There’s a good chance that motherboards today already offer bigger heatsinks than this one, so feel free to use those to keep its thermals in check.
Specifications
ADATA XPG MARS 980 BLADE 1TB (SMAR-980B-1TCS)
Full specifications available on product webpage and datasheet.
| Capacity | 1TB (as tested), 2TB, 4TB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280, double-sided |
| Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 |
| Controller | Silicon Motion SM2508 (Datasheet) |
| NAND Type | Micron 232-layer TLC NAND (rebranded as ADATA 600799AE) |
| DRAM | 2GB (2x1GB) DDR4-2666 Samsung K4A4G165WF-BCTD |
| Read/Write Speed (Rated) | 1TB: 14,000 MB/s (Read) / 10,000 MB/s (Write) 2TB: 14,000 MB/s (Read) / 13,000 MB/s (Write) 4TB: 14,000 MB/s (Read) / 13,000 MB/s (Write) |
| IOPS | 1TB: 1.60M IOPS (Read) / 1.65M IOPS (Write) 2TB: 2.00M IOPS (Read) / 1.65M IOPS (Write) 4TB: 1.95M IOPS (Read) / 1.65M IOPS (Write) |
| Write Endurance | 1TB: 740 TBW 2TB: 1480 TBW 4TB: 2960 TBW |
| Power Draw | Unspecified |
| Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) | 2,000,000 hours |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Dimensions | 22 x 80 x 3.2(±0.5) mm (without heatsink) 22 x 80 x 4.5(±0.5) mm (with heatsink) |
Test System
| CPU | Intel Core i9-13900K |
| Cooling | Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary Edition Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition |
| Memory | ADATA XPG CASTER DDR5-6000 CL30 (2x16GB) *configured to DDR5-6400 CL32 |
| Storage | ADATA LEGEND 960 MAX 1TB > ADATA XPG MARS 980 BLADE 1TB |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master MWE Gold 1250 V2 Full Modular (ATX12V 2.52) 1250W |
| Case | VECTOR Bench Case (Open-air chassis) |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home 24H2 |
Performance
CrystalDiskMark
Expectedly, the XPG MARS 980 BLADE shows impressive performances on CrystalDiskMark’s sequential tests, even exceeding its advertised numbers of 14,000MB/s read and 10,000MB/s write speeds. It’s also got excellent random I/O performance, significantly better than the other (technically) PCIe 5.0 SSD we tested – the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB, as well as one of the earliest PCIe 5.0 SSDs introduced that we have tested, the MSI SPATIUM M570 HS 1TB.
AS SSD Benchmark
Up next is AS SSD Benchmark, where we see around 9,000MB/s of speed in both read and write metrics. Clearly, the powerful PCIe 5.0 controller with the combination of discrete DRAM buffer enables very high throughput across the board.
Anvil’s Storage Utilities
Same outcome for Anvil’s Storage Utilities benchmark, which roughly averaged at 9,000MB/s in throughput, though it should be said that the XPG SSD didn’t outright win in all metrics compared to the SSDs we mentioned earlier. Samsung’s controller responsible for its 990 EVO Plus 2TB actually manage to win in 4K QD4 and QD16 read metrics by some margin, though in all other cases, the XPG MARS 980 Blade’s Silicon Motion controller take the win.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
While the headline-grabbing feature of SSDs usually involves sequential speeds – which rarely is applicable in real-life use cases – I/O performance is a metric that can be quite relevant. Interestingly, this SSD seem to struggle at read speeds on small block sizes (512B – 2KB), but throughput immediately recovers once block sizes move past them, hitting a peak 13.3GB/s read, 10.6GB.s write, 183K IOPS read, and 222K IOPS write.
Write Endurance (AIDA64)
This is something that surprised us: putting the XPG MARS 980 Blade through the linear write endurance test shows the drive doesn’t actually lose performance in the sense that most drives do. While the speed intermittently drops as low as 1.1GB/s past around 18% capacity (which is still plenty fast, mind you), it has jumped between the aforementioned figure to the peak of 9.3GB/s before it once again stays there at 69% capacity. It’s hard to say what caused this behavior, but either way, it only takes 34 minutes to fill an entire drive, which is extremely fast considering most drives require almost 90 minutes to do so.
Value
Looking at the pricing comparison, and first thing you know is the pricing has started to look less comfortable than before, and the cause is none other than insane AI and datacenter demands that currently drives RAM prices into unprecedented levels. Still, the SSD pricing looks comparatively normal, although a 2TB SSD seems like a better buy right now.
In the case of XPG MARS 980 BLADE though, you’ll be paying quite the money for the 1TB variant, and for similar pricing you can get both the Kingston NV3 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB with double the storage capacity to boot. While both drives offer less performance than the XPG drive does, in reality you’re really not losing that much, since SSD performance is already in a territory of diminishing returns as far as regular user use cases are concerned.
Verdict
At RM1,039, it’s not an easy price tag to swallow if you want the ADATA XPG MARS 980 BLADE to power your next system; but if you can stomach that price – and we expect the pricing situation to gradually get worse even if it’s not the prime target of AI companies right now – it’s a pretty solid option to go for.
Special thanks to ADATA for providing the XPG MARS 980 BLADE 1TB SSD for this review.
