Conclusion
The TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 PCIe 4.0 Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD is positioned as an affordable gaming SSD, either for your primary SSD for games or as a secondary storage for games. At an ultra-affordable price, you can get 2TB of storage for your gaming library at a good value. This is true due to the fact that the TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD is a DRAM-less SSD, relying on HMB and SLC Caching, using the InnoGrit IG5220BAA controller and YMTC 128L 3D TLC NAND Flash.
The TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 SSD is a PCIe 4.0 x4 (Gen4) NVMe SSD, but it is within the performance range of the first-generation or lower-tier PCIe Gen4 SSD performance. The TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD has a rated sequential read speed of 5,000MB/s and a rated sequential write speed of 4,500MB/s, with a 1300TBW endurance rating. TEAMGROUP offers three capacities, at 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. The 1TB model is currently available at only $57.99 at Newegg at the time of writing, and we’ve seen the 2TB model shown for $99.
Cooling
The goal of our temperature testing is to push the SSDs as hard as possible by performing a stress test of read and write. We run PerformanceTESTS’s advanced disk benchmark with a 10GB file, set to run each read/write test for 3 iterations, culminating in a 30-minute run. This is not typical usage behavior, but our goal is to find the maximum limits of the cooling. We utilize HWiNFO64 for reporting SSD temperatures, taking note of all sensor data, either the (NAND Flash or Composite Sensor) or the (ASIC) sensor. We have indicated “With Case Fan” and “Bare Drive” on the graph. Bare Drive does include any heat spreaders applied that come with the drive.
The graph above shows you the temperature difference between the Bare Drive (with Graphene heat spreader applied), compared to turning on a Case Fan that we have blowing across the SSD to simulate good case cooling. There is a distinct difference with the fan turned on. The Composite Sensor 1 and 2 reaches 75c with the bare drive, and cools down to 46c and 51c with a fan turned on.
The hottest component is the controller, in the ASIC temperature testing it reached 107c without a fan or heatsink. When we turned the case fan on, temperatures dropped massively down to 62c. Note that even at 107c, no drive failure, or drive warning messages were triggered, though you’d certainly not want it to remain at that temperature sustained. We recommend installing your M.2 heatsink from your motherboard, in a PC, and making sure you have good case cooling. In a laptop, you are more limited, but it shouldn’t cause any major issues unless you write to the drive at 100% load for 30+ minutes at a time non-stop. As a gaming drive, it will not have this load and will work just fine in a laptop.
SSD S.M.A.R.T. Tool
TEAMGROUP has its SSD S.M.A.R.T. Tool available for download. The software allows you to view the S.M.A.R.T. data and provides health and temperature information on the drive, as well as a benchmark and some device info. However, it does not have a firmware update checker or ability, which would be a great addition we’d like to see. The software has not been updated in a long while.
Final Points
Overall, the TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 PCIe 4.0 Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD has proven to be presented accurately in TEAMGROUP’s description. The TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDis presented as a gaming-oriented SSD and is able to provide a lower-cost, ultra-affordable, value-oriented SSD option to expand your gaming library, or even be your primary gaming SSD. It does so by leaving out a DRAM-cache and relying on HMB and an SLC cache, which is just fine for gaming, or storage needs for a gaming library.
The TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 PCIe 4.0 x4 (Gen4) NVMe SSD sits at a lower-tier, 5000MB/s Gen4 SSD tier of performance, but it turns out that is just fine for gaming performance. Its strength is not in a content creation, or multi-tasking environment, in fact, it often settles in under the competition in these areas. However, it did have very fast game load times, performing DirectStorage loads and raw game load times at very competitive performance. It also surprisingly did well in the workstation performance rating.
This won’t be the fastest Gen4 SSD, the tests clearly show that it can lack a bit in the highest throughput for read and write performance (except in some areas where it was better in write). Otherwise, where it does do well is in its intended purpose, to offer an affordable alternative to SSD storage for a gaming system, or as extra storage for your PC otherwise. It does so at an affordable price for 2TB of storage and has a decent endurance rating as well for an SSD of this caliber.
If you are in the market for an affordable SSD and just need some extra storage, or even just building a gaming-only PC, the TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD would be an affordable option.
