Patriot’s Viper VP4100 was launched a few months after the Gigabyte Aorus Gen4, Corsair MP600, and Sabrent’s Rocket Gen 4, but it has a lot in common with these drives. The key feature was support for the PCI Express 4.0 interface, which became available to consumers along with AMD’s 3rd-gen Ryzen and Threadripper platforms in 2019.
Overview: Memory Type, Controller, and Cache
Although it was launched later than its main competitors in the M.2 category, the Patriot Viper VP4100 uses the exact same base parts. That includes the now ubiquitous Phison E16 controller along with 96-layer triple-level cell (TLC) NAND memory from Toshiba. Likewise, all are equipped with a DDR4 DRAM buffer and an ultra-fast SLC-mode cache, which is a must in combination with comparatively slow TLC memory modules.
Patriot Viper VP4100 Vs. Other Phison E16 SSDs
| Phison E16 PCIe 4.0 SSD Comparison | Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 1TB | Sabrent Rocket Gen4 1TB | Corsair Force MP600 1TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | Phison E16 | Phison E16 | Phison E16 |
| Form Factor (Interface) | M.2 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3) | M.2 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3) | M.2 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3) |
| NAND Flash type | Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC | Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC | Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC |
| Random Read | 750K IOPS | 750K IOPS | 680K IOPS |
| Random Write | 700K IOPS | 750K IOPS | 600K IOPS |
| Sequential Read (max) | 5,000 MB/s | 5,000 MB/s | 4,950 MB/s |
| Sequential Write (max) | 4,400 MB/s | 4,400 MB/s | 4,250 MB/s |
| Write Endurance | 1800 TBW | 1800 TBW | 1800 TBW |
| Warranty | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
For the Phison E16-based SSDs to reach their maximum transfer rates, a PCI Express 4.0-compatible platform is required. As of late 2019, the only platforms available to consumers that support PCIe 4.0 is AMD’s X570 and TRX40 – and only in combination with the latest AMD chips.
However, when the additional performance headroom is available, no competing M.2 SSDs from 2019 can reach the same maximum performance as the Patriot Viper VP4100 and other E16-based drives. Although the components are largely identical, the firmware is not, so performance varies slightly between the drives. The Viper’s advertised specs closely resemble Sabrent’s and Gigabyte’s drives but offer somewhat higher peak IOPS performance. In real-world scenarios, the difference should be minimal.
The Viper VP4100 is available in three capacities: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB, with peak sequential write performance being lower in the 500GB capacity.
Power Consumption
The Patriot Viper 4100 is equipped with a heatsink, and would not be suitable for laptops. Either way, there are no PCIe 4.0-enabled laptops at the time of writing.
Warranty and Endurance Rating
Like its competitors, the Viper VP4100 comes with excellent endurance (TBW) ratings of 900 TBW (500GB), 1,800 TBW (1TB) and 3,600 TBW (2TB). Patriot offers a 5-year limited warranty with the drive.
Expert Reviews
If you want one of the best storage drives you can get for your new AMD system, then the Viper VP4100 from Patriot is the way to go.
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