Conclusion
Today we have reviewed the new Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD (VPR400-1TBM28H), the first RGB Gen4x4 SSD. This SSD packs all the performance of PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen4 x4 in a value-oriented M.2 SSD, with a heatsink installed to boot, and even adds addressable RGB that can be fully customized with the Viper RGB 3.0 Sync App software. It’s a complete package that you don’t see very often, but we hope the trend continues.
The Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB SSD has two flavors currently, a 512GB model and a 1TB model, though it looks like to us there is room on the PCB to have a 2TB model in the future. We reviewed the 1TB model today. This is a TLC 3D NAND Flash-based SSD that is DRAM-less but makes up for it by utilizing the new Host Memory Buffer (HMB) NVMe technology. It is based on the Innogrit IG5220 controller. It operates on the PCIe 4.0 interface at Gen4 x4. It has a rated sequential read speed of 4600MB/s and a write speed of 4400MB/s.
This puts the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB in the middle-class speed tier of Gen4x4 performance SSDs. There is another higher-class speed tier, like the MSI SPATIUM M480, that operates in the 7000MB/s read and 6000MB/s write performance levels. The Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB SSD is in-line with the speed-class tier of SSDs like the CORSAIR Force MP600 and MSI SPATIUM M470.
Performance
Starting with PCMark 10’s storage benchmark, the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD resulted in the highest performance level, primarily due to the access time. In this heavier trace workload, the SSD beat all the other SSDs on the graph, including the MSI SPATIUM M480. When we looked closer at the access performance, we found out why, it had the lowest access time out of all the SSDs, really impressive numbers on that. When we ran lighter trace loads, however, in the Quick Storage Benchmark test, it came in about the middle of the pack, with the CORSAIR Force MP600 and MSI SPATIUM M470, it’s competition, beating it slightly. The trend was the same in PassMark PerformanceTEST Disk Mark.
Testing sequential performance in CrystalDiskMark resulted in a very positive experience with the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD. It exceeded expectations, and exceeded its own specification by a good margin, resulting in a read and write performance that directly beat its competition, the MSI SPATIUM M470, and CORSAIR Force MP600. It was most impressive in its sequential write performance, where it smashed performance over its direct competition. This was true in both sequential tests. In the random performance testing, the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD was also strong in read performance. In both tests it smashed read performance, beating every SSD in both tests. Its only weakness was random write performance, where it did come in with weaker performance.
In copying different-sized files, we found it struggled most with mixed file sizes and large file sizes. Only in the AS SSD ISO test did it perform the best, but in Program, Game, and our own custom 50GB file copy, it was nearer the bottom on copy performance. This will generally only affect you if you are copying lots of single packaged large file sizes. When it came to game load times though, it was actually the fastest SSD at only 10 seconds in Final Fantasy. For whatever reason, it was just very quick at launching and loading scenes.
In SPECworkstation 3.1 we were surprised to see how well the Viper Gaming VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD performed. It was actually the second best SSD for workstation applications, only beat by the faster MSI SPATIUM M480. It beat its closest competing SSDs, the CORSAIR Force MP600, and MSI SPATIUM M470. Finally, in ATTO it performed really high in write performance, and beat the competition, but fell a little short in read.
Cooling
The Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD comes with a thin profile heatsink installed, so we tested the temperature with the heatsink installed in its default configuration. Note above that the MSI SPATIUM M480 and CORSAIR Force MP600 also have their own heatsinks in place, the M470 and Sabrent Rocket however do not.
In our 20-minute stress test, the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB SSD had one of the coolest temperatures at just 63c during a constant heavy load for 20-minutes. It matched the MSI 2TB SPATIUM M480 which has a thicker heatsink. Even though the CORSAIR Force MP600 also has a heatsink, it got warmer at 68c, and then the Sabrent Rocket was the hottest at near 80c without a heatsink. Basically, the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB 1TB with its heatsink installed will not performance throttle on you in heavy loads.
Final Points
Let’s be very clear, Patriot has designed the Viper Gaming VPR400 RGB SSD to be a value-oriented SSD. It is priced at a more value-oriented price-range, and has more value-oriented read and write speeds for a Gen4x4 SSD. There is a higher tier of Gen4x4 SSDs that hit 7000MB/s read/write with more expensive controllers. However, just because it is a value-oriented SSD, Patriot did not skimp and actually packaged it up quite nicely with features you don’t normally see on a value-oriented SSD.
For starters, it comes with a heatsink pre-installed. If they really wanted to skimp, they could have just left out a heatsink, but they did not. It’s actually a very good heatsink, thin-profile, but works really well according to our temperature testing. It cools the controller and flash. The inclusion of a heatsink pre-installed alone is a premium feature, but they didn’t stop there.
Patriot gave the Viper Gaming VPR400 the world’s first RGB integrated, and it is addressable and constable with various effects with software. RGB is something they could have easily just left out to save money, but nope, Patriot wanted to squeeze in everything they could. There is one cost-saving measure, the fact it does not have DRAM, it is a DRAM-less SSD. However, thanks to the Host Memory Buffer feature of NVMe, they can get away with it and performance actually doesn’t tank.
All of those things are nice and all, but if it didn’t perform, then it wouldn’t be worth it. Thankfully, it does perform, and it is worth it. The performance we experienced exceeded our expectations. In sequential read and write performance, it performs above average, and above its station, in random read performance, it is also so. It’s only a bit slower in random write performance, but not terribly so, not enough that it will cause any problems.
What it makes up for otherwise, is worth it. It isn’t the fastest Gen4x4 SSD, but it is competitive, very competitive with middle-class Gen4x4 speed-tier performers. It competitively edges out the CORSAIR Force MP600 and MSI SPATIUM M470 and offers RGB, which they do not, and a heatsink, which the M470 does not, and runs cooler than the CORSAIR MP600.
Overall, the Patriot Viper VPR400 RGB SSD offers a complete bundle of features seen in premium SSDs, at a more affordable price, with very competitive performance in its class backed by a well-known brand for memory. If you are looking for the complete bundle, with heatsink, and RGB, the Viper Gaming VPR400 RGB SSD is it. You can’t beat current price for all of these things included.
