Seagate Game Drive 2TB SSD review: A fast and reliable SSD for your PS5

One of the PS5’s most attractive features is its upgradeable M.2 SSD, but there’s a catch: it needs to be fast. This is because the PS5 has DirectStorage-like technology, and a slow SSD just won’t work. Consequently, PS5 owners looking for PS5-friendly SSDs need to be pretty careful, and that’s where Seagate’s Game Drive PS5 NVMe SSD comes in. It’s made for the PS5, is officially licensed by Sony, and offers 1TB and 2TB models.

The 1TB model of the Game Drive is a bit pointless since the PS5 already has a 1TB SSD, and the Game Drive 1TB goes for $100. However, the $150 Game Drive 2TB is really good, and although it’s expensive for a PCIe 4.0 SSD, it’s definitely worth it thanks to its great performance under even the most challenging of conditions. However, the 990 Pro 2TB with Samsung’s custom heatsink costs $150 and performs slightly better, making the Game Drive 2TB a little uncompetitive.

 

Seagate Game Drive PS5

Tailor-made for the PS5

A bit expensive but reliable and fast

If you need an SSD you know will work well in the PS5, Seagate’s Game Drive PS5 NVMe is a great choice. It comes preinstalled with a heatsink and has great sustained performance.

Storage capacity

1TB, 2TB

Hardware Interface

Gen4x4

Brand

Seagate

Transfer rate

7,300/6,900 Read/Write (2TB)

TBW

1,275TBW per TB

MTBF

1.8 million hours

Warranty

5 year

Pros

• Great performance even under intense conditions
• Preinstalled heatsink
• Decent price

Cons

• Samsung’s 990 Pro heatsink model is a little better for the same price
• 1TB model is a bit pointless

Pricing and availability

Ostensibly, Seagate launched the Game Drive PS5 NVMe SSD on October 3 and released 1TB and 2TB models, which currently cost $100 and $150 respectively. They always come preinstalled with a heatsink since they’re made for the PS5, though they can also be used on normal desktops as long as you have an M.2 slot that supports NVMe SSDs.

However, there seems to be another version of the Game Drive that came out last year, and this older Game Drive looks identical in every respect. Not only does the older Game Drive appear to use the same heatsink, but the 1TB and 2TB models have the same specifications. Furthermore, there’s actually a 4TB model of this older Game Drive, while the “new” Game Drive that Seagate launched in October only goes up to 2TB. On Amazon, the 2TB model is no longer available, but the 1TB model is $72 and the 4TB model is $390.

Whatever the case is, each Game Drive has an endurance of 1,275TBW per terabyte of storage. The 1TB and 2TB models are rated for 7,300MB/s in reads while the 4TB model is slightly slower at 7,250MB/s, while the 2TB and 4TB models can do 6,900MB/s in writes against the 1TB’s 6,000MB/s. Additionally, the 1TB model has 20% less random reading performance than the 2TB and 4TB models.

Performance

How the Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVMe 2TB was tested

I have the 2TB Game Drive in for review today, which I tested in my Intel benchmarking PC equipped with the Core i9-14900K, ASRock’s Z790 Taichi Lite, and 32GB of DDR5 clocked at 5,600MHz and running CL40 timings. However, it’s worth noting that the sequential, peak performance results will likely not be possible on the PS5. AMD CPUs (even the latest Ryzen 7000 series) have a hard time extracting all possible performance out of SSDs, and I’m sure this will apply to the PS5 and its Zen 2 AMD APU. That being said, there will be some key metrics that will matter for the PS5.

I used my normal suite of benchmarks for this review: CrystalDiskMark, 3DMark’s storage test, and IOMeter. To be clear, only one of these is a gaming benchmark, but getting the full story on an SSD without testing at least a few apps is impossible. The PS5 doesn’t merely demand a fast SSD that can satisfy 3DMark, it requires one that can handle the PS5’s cutting-edge data streaming software, which is why not all PCIe 4.0 SSDs are good for the PS5.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an array of SSDs that make sense to test against the Game Drive 2TB. Very few SSDs are officially rated for the PS5, and I don’t have any of them on hand. That’ll make the numbers a bit hard to judge, but I’ll add extra context where needed to make things clearer.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark tests file transfer speeds under several different customizable parameters. Here, I’m just sticking to the six tests it has by default, which cover the most realistic situations for an SSD to be in. While this is a synthetic and not real-world benchmark, it illustrates the peak performance we should expect in an SSD.

Scores are organized by read/write and are measured in MB/s.

While the data from my 990 Pro 1TB and MP600 Pro NH 2TB reviews were done on a different test bench and can’t be compared directly to here, it’s definitely true that the Game Drive 2TB is only a little far behind in sequential workloads. The picture isn’t clear in random workloads, since AMD CPUs especially struggle with those, but I would estimate that the Game Drive is roughly on par or maybe a little behind at worst.

For the PS5 in particular, these results are good but not super important. It is true that you want an SSD that’s at least as fast as the one in the PS5 just to make sure everything works properly, but any extra performance won’t matter all too much. You may see a reduction in loading times with this SSD, but we’re talking about going from five seconds to three or two, which isn’t a big deal.

3DMark

The storage benchmark in 3DMark is especially applicable to the Game Drive as it tests real games. The overall score is based on how the drive performs in three games regarding transfer speeds and latency.

A score of 4,200 is pretty good, though a bit behind the 990 Pro 2TB, according to most reviews and the 3DMark database. More importantly, it’s definitely a good score among other PCIe 4.0 SSDs, so you can be pretty safe assuming that this SSD will be sufficient. Of course, it’s also licensed by Sony, so you shouldn’t need to worry anyway.

IOMeter

I’ve configured IOMeter, an old-school SSD benchmarking tool from decades ago, to run a 15-minute-long writing workload on the Game Drive at three levels of fullness. This is because a long-running writing operation will eventually deplete an SSD’s cache and result in a performance drop. Plus, a filled-up SSD has less room to quickly shove data into, and the more time an SSD has to dedicate to sorting itself out, the less time it has for moving data, and the worse performance gets.

I tested the Game Drive at 10% full, 50% full, and 90% full in the graph below.

Scores are measured in MB/s.

What’s remarkable about the Game Drive is its performance even with so much of it being full. For context, this performance is nearly as good as Corsair’s MP700 Pro 2TB, a top-end PCIe 5.0 SSD, and better than some PCIe 5.0 drives. This kind of performance is really important for something like the PS5, which expects good writing speeds at all times, like if you’re downloading a game in the background for example.

IOMeter is also a pretty good way to test thermals and cooling performance since it runs for so long and can bring out high power consumption in an SSD. Thankfully, the Game Drive only peaked at 75 C in my testing, which is a little on the high side but well short of thermal throttling. Results might actually be better in the PS5 since it’s designed to guide airflow over the SSD.

Should you buy the Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVMe 2TB?

You should buy the Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVMe 2TB if:

• You want a reliable and fast third-party PS5 SSD
• You want your PS5 SSD to be certified for the PS5
• You want an SSD that comes with a heatsink

You should not buy the Seagate Game Drive PS5 NVMe 2TB if:

• The 990 Pro 2TB with heatsink is the same price or a tiny bit more
• You don’t really care that the Game Drive’s heatsink is PlayStation-themed
• You don’t have a PS5

Seagate’s Game Drive 2TB SSD for the PS5 isn’t perfect, but it’s generally a good product. It offers good peak performance, great sustained performance, and should work well in the PS5. The only real problem it has to contend with is the 990 Pro 2TB, as the heatsink model is similarly priced and performs better. If the 990 Pro 2TB is an option for you, I don’t see why you’d get the Game Drive, but at the same time, Seagate’s SSD isn’t bad, either.

The 1TB model is pretty pointless as far as I can tell. It could definitely find some use as a replacement part for a broken PS5, but there’s no point in upgrading to it based on data that other reviewers and users have shown. On the other hand, the 4TB model of the older Game Drive could be great for your PS5 if you want tons of games. Though at nearly $400, it’s pretty expensive, and we live in a world where the 4TB model of the 990 Pro exists and costs $355 with the heatsink or $250 without.

I think the Game Drive could use a little bit of a price cut, or at least if SSD prices go up, as I expect, the Game Drive needs to end up being a little cheaper than the 990 Pro. Of course, you may decide that the Game Drive’s custom heatsink is worth spending a little extra on, and you’d be well within your right to do so.

Seagate Game Drive PS5

Tailor-made for the PS5

If you need an SSD you know will work well on the PS5, Seagate’s Game Drive PS5 NVMe is a great choice. It comes preinstalled with a heatsink and has great sustained performance.