Team Group T-Force GA PRO Gen5 2 TB NVMe SSD Review – Tuned Specs For Entry-Level Gen5 Builders

Back in 2023, T-Force by TeamGroup introduced its first Gen5 SSD solution, the CARDEA Z540. Based on the Phison E26 controller, this SSD offered up to 12.4 GB/s speeds, making it a solid option back then. At the moment, there are plenty of Gen5 SSD controllers in the market, Phison has its new E28 and E31T, the SMI SM2508 is doing great, and InnoGrit, along with Samsung, has its own solutions offering really fast storage capabilities on NVMe products.

TeamGroup has also streamlined its product family over the years, now leveraging the G-series branding in "GE", "GC", and "GA". The "GE" series offers up to 14 GB/s speeds, the "GA" series offers up to 12.5 GB/s speeds, and the "GA" series offers up to 10 GB/s speeds. There's also the "G" series SSDs, but these are Gen4-based and offer up to 5 GB/s speeds. As these controllers and NAND Flash improve, the speeds for Gen5 SSDs will continue to be uplifted further, and T-Force has been upgrading its products with solid releases all year round.

For today's review, we will be taking a look at T-Force's GA PRO SSD. Our sample is a 2 TB model which retails for $179.99 US.

T-Force GA PRO 2 TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD

The T-Force GA PRO 2 TB Gen5 SSD is part of the high-end T-Force series, and it sits right below the "GC" series. The T-Force GA PRO Gen5 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature the YMTC 232-Layer 3D TLC NAND flash, which offers capacities of up to 4 TB. The T-Force GAseries SSDs are based on the Innogrit IG5666 controller, which is in use by some high-end Gen5 drives at the moment.

FEATURES

• Gen5 Is beyond Limits, Offering Next-gen Speed Performance
• Multi-core Solution for Performance Evolution
• Data Security Isolation Mechanism
• New Generation Error Correction Technology
• Patented graphene heatsink for enhanced heat dissipation and system operating stability
• S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring System
• Be Eco-friendly and Conserve the Earth
• Patented Graphene Heat Sink
• Invention patent number in the US: US11051392B2
• Innovation patent number in Taiwan: I703921
• Utility model patent number in China: CN 211019739 U
• Patented S.M.A.R.T. Software
• Innovation patent number in Taiwan: I751753

As for the specs, the T-Force GC PRO NVMe SSDs will come with the standard NVMe 2.0 PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. It will feature 1 TB, 2 TB, and up to 4 TB capacities with a rated speed of up to 10.0 GB/s (Sequential Read) and 8.5 GB/s (Sequential Write).

T-Force also ships the drivers with a Graphene pad, which we have seen to offer up to 3-4C temperature reduction versus standard drivers that have stickers on top of the PCB. As for heatsink variants, T-Force doesn't offer them, but they do offer cooling solutions which we recently tested here, offering good value and performance.

T-Force GC PRO Gen5 SSD Lineup Specifications:

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T-Force GA PRO 2 TB Gen5 NVMe SSD – Unboxing and Closer Look

The T-Force GA PRO SSD comes in a fairly standard and small package with a black and red color scheme. The labels do a great job of telling what SSD you are getting since the capacities, speeds, and warranty are clearly mentioned along with a picture of the device itself.

The T-Force "GA" series SSD box includes a warranty booklet, the Graphene heatpad, and the SSD itself. All drives are held within a plastic shell container.

Out of the package, all T-Force GA PRO series SSDs come in the standard M.2 2280 form factor and feature a black PCB, which is great since some mainstream drives come with blue-colored PCBs.

The SSD doesn't feature any sticker, but the Graphene heatpad can easily be attached to it.

The T-Force GA PRO 2 TB features the InnoGrit IG5666 Gen5 SSD controller along with four YMTC 232-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash modules and two SK Hynix DDR4-3200 DRAM modules with 2 GB capacity. The bottom side of the PCB has a regular sticker.

Test Setup

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor, which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs. The MSI Z790 ACE specifically houses a single Gen 5.0 x4 NVMe slot that sources its lanes from the Raptor Lake CPU.

Wccftech SSD Test Setup For Gen5:

Processor	Intel Core i9-13900K
Motherboard:	MSI MEG Z790 ACE
Power Supply:	MSI MEG Ai1300P (1300W)
Solid State Drive:	Team Group T-Force GC PRO 2 TB Gen5 Crucial T710 PRO 2 TB Gen5 Samsung 9100 PRO 2 TB Gen5 KLEVV Genuine G560 2 TB Gen5 ADATA Legend 970 Pro 2 TB Gen5 MSI Spatium M580 Frozr 4 TB Gen 5 PNY XLR8 CS3150 2 TB Gen 5 MSI Spatium M570 Pro 2 TB Gen 5 Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB Gen 5 Inland TD510 2 TB Gen 5 Crucial T700 Gen 5 2 TB AORUS Gen 5 10000 2 TB
Memory:	G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-7400 (2 x 16 GB)
Case:	Cooler Master C700M
Video Cards:	MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X
Cooling Solutions:	MSI MEG S360 AIO Liquid Cooler
OS:	Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)

Crucial T710 2 TB Gen5 NVMe SSD Performance Benchmarks

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence of your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data.  The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

ATTO 3.05 Disk Benchmark

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely accepted Disk Benchmark freeware to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays, as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives, and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. It measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

File Transfer Speeds (100 GB File Size)

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

Forspoken DirectStorage Benchmark

Conclusion - Similar To GC With A Lower Price

Team Group GA series SSDs match the higher-end GC series, as both are based on the same specs. Both feature Innogrit's IG5666 Gen5 controller and YMTC NAND Flash, and there is no major difference besides some clock speed tuning here and there. We were impressed with the GC series, so the same conclusion applies here. Users can expect a very responsive storage SSD, backed by a 5-year warranty, and solid performance.

Due to recent NAND shortages, SSD prices have gone up significantly. The T-Force GA is currently listed at $329, which is much higher than what the GC PRO 2 TB used to retail for ($179) a year ago when we tested it. Furthermore, despite several years going by on the Gen5 platform, we have yet to see any major performance uplifts when going from Gen4 to Gen5; even Gen3 SSDs are mighty capable for the vast majority of applications these days.

With that said, if you can find the GA or GC PRO 2 TB SSDs under $200 US, they will be a great deal; if not, just stick with your current storage solution and wait for prices to drop or some nice deals to show up.

You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.

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