SK hynix PC801 (OEM) 1 TB vs Samsung PM9A1 (OEM) 512 GB

Short answer: which is best?

SK hynix PC801 (OEM) 1 TB is 79.2 % stronger than Samsung PM9A1 (OEM) 512 GB. SK hynix PC801 (OEM) 1 TB ranks #13 of 54 measured system drives at WhatFPS (12,146 Drive score over 4 verified runs). Samsung PM9A1 (OEM) 512 GB ranks #42 of 54 measured system drives at WhatFPS (6,778 Drive score over 5 verified runs). The numbers are measured in 9 verified WhatFPS runs — not estimated, not self-reported.

Measured comparison

MetricSK hynix PC801 (OEM) 1 TBSamsung PM9A1 (OEM) 512 GB
Drive score (the drive's own performance: sequential read + 4K IOPS)12,1466,778
Best rig (GAMING — whole PC)7,7246,746
Sequential read3,741 MB/s1,427 MB/s
4K IOPS14,38810,030
4K latency, median (lower is better)53 µs91 µs
TypeNVMe SSDNVMe SSD
Size1 TB512 GB

What the numbers mean

The drive score is the system drive's measured performance in the rigs it sat in — sequential read and 4K IOPS, unbuffered. PCIe generation, fill level and driver affect it. GAMING is the whole rig's score. We show both and never mix them.

All numbers come from our benchmark suite, the same test on every PC, written in Rust with no middleware. The methodology is open at https://whatfps.com/metodik

All measurements for SK hynix PC801 (OEM) 1 TB · All measurements for Samsung PM9A1 (OEM) 512 GB