Review finds SK hynix Platinum P41 PCIe 4.0 SSD is too hot and throttles under stress

Recently, SK hynix launched its Platinum P41 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. The P41 model succeeded the company's previous P31 Gold offering which was based on last-gen PCIe Gen3 technology and hence the new drive promises much faster speeds.

According to SK hynix's press release, the Platinum P41 is capable of sequential read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 6,500 MB/s. Random reads and writes are rated at 1,400K and 1,300K IOPS respectively. The NAND density of the P41 is also improved greatly at 176 layers compared to the P31's 128.

The SK hynix Platinum P41 is powered by the firm's in-house "Aries" micro-controller and the model is said to undergo 1,000 hours of high-temperature operating life (HTOL) testing and promises an endurance rating of up to 1,200 TBW.

When fellow website NotebookCheck tested the new Platinum P41, the performance of the drive was found to be quite decent and similar to how most other PCIe Gen4 NVMe drives typically perform. You can see the benchmark results for the SK hynix Platinum P41 in CrystalDiskMark, AS SSD and ATTO below:

However, while the drive performed well in short bursts, it was found that the sustained performance of the P41 was disappointing. When stressed using DiskSpd read loop test, the Platinum P41 controller spiked all the way up to 93°C and began to throttle. The drive temperature itself was also quite high at 83°C.

The report notes:

We're able to record a maximum temperature of 93 C (!) on the ASIC controller when performance was throttling.

If you plan on using the drive for large and constant file transfers, then it will be especially important to pair it with a third party heat spreader. Otherwise, performance will quickly throttle to PCIe3 speeds for temperature control.

It is fair to say that NotebookCheck is not exaggerrating as 83°C is definitely too high for NAND memory and the ideal operating temperature for NAND is far lower according to industry experts.

Source and images: NotebookCheck