Gigabyte is expanding its AI-focused SSD lineup to incorporate its Ultra Durable (UD) sub-branding for lower-tier products. The AI TOP UD SSD 1TB is an all-new lower-end version of the AI TOP 100E SSD series, featuring less performance and lower endurance but still achieving over 100,000 TBW.
The AI TOP UD SSD is a PCIe 4.0 drive with a sequential read speed of up to 6,500 MB/s and a sequential write speed of up to 5,700 MB/s. Its endurance is rated at 109,500 TBW, and it comes with a five-year warranty. The drive fits inside a standard M.2 2280 form factor, making it compatible with most laptops and desktops.
Compared to the 100E series, the AI TOP UD SSD features noticeably inferior performance and endurance. Sequential read speeds are up to 700 MB/s lower, and writes are up to 800 MB/s lower. Endurance is also cut in half from the 100E series, from 219,000 to 109,500 TBW — though the drive still manages to match the 1TB version of the 100E in endurance.
For a PCIe 4.0 drive, the AI TOP UD SSD is far from the top performers, such as the Samsung 990 Pro, which can completely max out the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface at over 7,000 MB/s. However, Gigabyte's AI-focused drives are not designed around raw performance. Gigabyte prioritizes raw endurance over everything else because its AI drive focuses on AI workloads. The name is not as gimmicky as it sounds; these drives are legitimately aimed at AI workloads, with Gigabyte featuring an "AI TOP" utility that offloads the processing work of large datasets from a GPU's VRAM or DRAM to its AI SSDs.
Gigabyte's high endurance ratings help these SSDs sustain AI workloads for long periods. This workload is incredibly stressful on an SSD, as it constantly reads and writes to the drive. With over 100,000 TBW, the AI TOP UD SSD blows away all of the best consumer SSDs on the market by an absurd margin in terms of endurance. Its endurance rating rivals some of the enterprise and data center-grade SSDs. By comparison, the Samsung 990 Pro, widely regarded to be one of the best PCIe 4.0 consumer drives on the market, has an endurance rating of "just" 2,400 TBW on the 4TB model, which is 41 times less endurance than that of the AI TOP UD SSD.
Pricing has yet to be disclosed, but given the specifications, it should be cheaper than the AI TOP 100E 1TB, which retails over $2,600 at some retailers.
