Kingston NV2 Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD Review

The  Kingston NV1 SSD we reviewed earlier in the year was fairly received in our region thanks to it decent overall performance and very accessible price but from a technical standpoint, it was product that was intended to hit a certain performance target with varying NAND+Controller combinations.

This is still apparently Kingston’s strategy with the newer Kingston NV2 available in mixed NAND+controller combos but this time around, it will target a higher performance bracket. It will also be marketed as a Gen4 SSD but as the performance ratings indicate, its more for show. Regardless, the Kingston NV2 is looking to bump up performance on the entry-level market with this new release and with pricing remaining relatively close, Kingston may be looking to to get more of these out in the wild.

Read on to find out more in this review of the Kingston NV2 SSD!

Features & Specification

Closer Look

The Kingston NV1 series was known to use various parts to meet its target rating and price. We expect Kingston to do the same with the NV2. Below are the components used by Kingston on our NV2 sample:

• Controller: Silicon Motion SM2267XTV
• Flash: FB51208UCT1-B8

 

Performance Testing – Kingston FURY Renegade SSD Heatsink

Test Setup

Processor: Intel Core i9-13900K
Motherboard: ROG Maximus Z690 EXTREME
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5-6400 32GB (2×16)
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade SSD (OS), tested drive as listed
PSU: FSP Hydro GT Pro 1000W
Cooling: NZXT Kraken X72 RGB
Monitor: ROG PG27UQ
VGA: MSI RTX 3050 Gaming X

Our sample for this test is the Kingston NV2 2TB

Crystal DiskMark

CrystalDIskMark has been the most actively updated disk benchmark amongst all the ones we use and is effectively the most reliable. Unfortunately, version to version results are not comparable which limits the ability to extrapolate comparative data. Still its a reliable and direct benchmark. Like the previous, it allows control over test data pattern, the test data size, amount of passes and individual benchmark control.

PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

PCMark 10 introduces a set of four storage benchmarks that use relevant real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the latest modern drives.

3DMark Storage Benchmark

The 3DMark Storage Benchmark uses traces recorded from popular games and gaming-related activities to measure real-world gaming performance, such as:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch® from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark

Final Fantasy XIV has a standalone benchmark application for PC, always updated to the latest game expansion with the latest Endwalker benchmark delivering some very nice graphical updates. A long-standing feature of the Final Fantasy XIV standalone benchmark is the loading data is captures which is a summary of all the load times between scenes in the benchmark.

Playstation 5 Testing

The Sony Playstation 5 supports storage expansion thru M.2 devices and many SSD makers are advertising their drives as supporting the Playstation 5. That said, we’ve included PS5 bandwidth testing in our reviews. We use the Playstation 5’s internal read speed test for the primary initialization. Due to how Sony designed this benchmark, our testing averages at least 5 reads with the drive formatted after a rest period for best thermal results.

Conclusion

The Kingston NV2 is a nice improvement from the Kingston NV1. Its very affordable and didn’t inflate in price as much as one would expect coming from the NV1. The Gen4 spec is completely a marketing term here and while the drive operates with the Gen4 interface, its speeds is comparable to Gen3. Still, even Gen3 SSDs didn’t go this low with read performance as high as the NV2.

The main argument is should you buy this SSD especially witht he NV1 still around along with other cheaper competitor? Its actually tricky. Our sample is the 2TB version. But most people in this market would probably want 2TB if they have lots of data to store and need it fast and that’s breaking the budget range of the NV2’s target audience.

That said, the Kingston NV2 thrives in the 1TB or 500GB market. I really don’t recommend going 250GB anymore but as a boot drive and 2 or 3 esports games in there, its perfect. And with the NV2 at only PHP1890 for 250GB, its definitely very appealing but to put more value into it, Kingston’s warranty is still 3 years on the NV2. While normally its 5 years for their mainstream models, due to value position of drive, its a bit reduced. Still, 3 years is a long time and if you only write the entire drive size, its still going to take a while to saturate your TBW rating.

The Kingston NV2 is an easy recommendation for those buying under Php5000. Whether you have a Gen4 or Gen3 slot, its going to work and will offer you a boost in perforamnce specially coming off hard drives. Most of you reading this are probably looking for a cheap SSDs or is offered a cheaper SSD upgrade for your laptop or PC. If you’re being offered the Kingston NV2 for free with a drive-less system, then by all means its a good enough starting point.

Part difference aside, the Kingston NV2 is a great value drive especially 1TB and lower capacities. There are options out there on sale that could match the performance of the NV2  but how often would you catch their sub-Php2,000 option for anything less than Php1800? The Kingston NV2 maintains Kingston’s excellent value-to-performance offering from the NV1 and the Kingston NV2 improves on performance while still offering the drive for nearly the same. Easily a good starter SSD for average users, whether its for games or just a home system.