Built with gaming in mind, the WD_Black P50 Game Drive runs up to a blazing 2000 MB/s and looks really, really good.
The WD_Black P50 Game Drive takes advantage of NVMe SSD architecture, as well as the latest USB 3.2 Gen2x2 interface, to allow it to transfer data at up to 2000 MB/s. But we’ll get to that in just a little bit.
The first thing you’ll notice is the WD_Black P50’s visual appeal. It’s all black combat-ready aluminum enclosure is extremely cool, robust and oh so sexy. It is probably one of the coolest looking SSDs we’ve seen out-of-the box.
The aluminum casing looks and feels tough and gives you the confidence that this can take a couple of knocks… and drops. Any dents or scratches might actually add to the appeal.
The aluminum casing, while providing robust protection, also serves another purpose – as a heatsink. One of the things that we immediately notices is that the WD_Black P50 does generate heat when it runs, which is why the aluminum casing makes lots of sense. There are also air vents at its base that allows for heat to dissipate.
Now let’s get back to what really matters – speed. The WD_Black P50 is advertised to be able to transfer data up to 2000 MB/s. According to our CrystalDiskMark (peak profile) tests, it sure can. When run on the real world profile though, as expected, speeds dropped but still really fast.
However, you can only reach those speeds if you have the latest USB 3.2 Gen2x2 interface. We had to upgrade our rig just to see if it really could hit those speeds.
If you don’t have the latest interface, all is not lost though as the WD_Black P50 is 100% backward compatible. This means you’ll likely max out the transfer speeds of any older interface such as the USB 3.2 Gen 2 that only can handle 1050 MB/s.
To test it out, we connected the game drive to a PS4 Pro to test game load times of the stock PS4 Pro drive vs the WD_Black P50. The winner was clear with significant improvement in loading times with the WD-Black P50 connected via USB (with the provided cable), over the older USB port.
Even with the USB port as a bottleneck, the WD_Black P50 out performed the internal drive of the PS4 Pro. Check out our video review for the load time comparison.
The only downside to the WD-Black P50 is its high price point. It may be the fastest drive out there, but that’s a price you have to pay. The official Western Digital store on Lazada prices the 500GB model at SGD 399, 1TB model at SGD 599,and the 2TB at SGD 999.
The WD_Black P50 Game Drive is extremely fast, looks really cool and robust. It does cost quite a bit though. If budget is an issue, the SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD that runs at half the speed -1050 MB/s, will get the job done.