The Crucial P3 Plus 4TB offers excellent value for money with its DRAM-less design and respectable Gen 4.0 sequential performance. Despite not being the fastest or most exciting storage drive on the market, there is certainly the argument that it can be considered one of the best SSDs for gaming (opens in new tab).
That said, the Crucial P3 Plus falls short as an excellent all-rounder that can do double duty as one of the best PS5 SSDs (opens in new tab), at. This is due to the rates that, despite all efforts, do not quite match Sony’s hardware requirements. Still, with its competitive asking price of $399 for a 4TB model, there’s a lot of bang for the buck here that’s worth recognizing.
This drive is also available in 500GB ($59.99), 1TB ($99.99), and 2TB ($189.99) configurations for those who don’t need that much overhead.
Design and Features
There’s nothing special about the way the Crucial P3 Plus looks, as important as it is. Things are kept aesthetically simple and simple with a sticker covering the Phison E21T controller and 176-Layer Micron QLC flash memory card. All you need to do is get the company logo and name of the drive itself, as well as the form factor; no frills to a tee.
The build quality of the Crucial P3 Plus is way above what your typical wallet-friendly NVMe SSDs are, with a solid thickness for the board itself that won’t bend or bend. No heatsink is included here, so you’ll need to make sure your motherboard’s dedicated M.2 heat spreader or larger heat shield is applied.
As expected from a budget Gen 4.0 NVMe SSD, this particular model is DRAM less, which is reflected in the overall performance we’ll discuss later. However, the lack of DRAM means that this single-sided drive is low enough to fit in a suitable gaming laptop (opens in new tab) M.2 port and in your main gaming PC (opens in new tab).
Performance
The performance of the Crucial P3 Plus 4B is certainly respectable on PC, with the brand’s modest claims of up to 5000MB/s read and 4200MB/s write rates coming out well in my testing. Speaking of which, CrystalDiskMark reported read and write figures of 5009.02 and 4332.15 respectively, which is actually slightly higher than the published rates.
This is also reflected in our AnvilPro test scores, with an overall figure of 18,961.54, taking into account sequential and random performance in general. This is right in the middle where we find some other DRAM-less NVMe drives like the Patriot Viper VPR400 (opens in new tab) with its InnoGrit IG5220 controller. You won’t scrap that 7000MB/s Gen 4.0 cap here, but for gaming and file transfers you could do a lot worse.
Real-world file transfer times give us a clearer indication of just how capable the Crucial P3 Plus can be. Street Fighter V (opens in new tab), with a file size of 54 GB, took the leap from another industry-leading Gen 4.0 SSD in just 23 seconds for a transfer rate of 2.45 GB/sec. This is equivalent to Cyberpunk 2077 (opens in new tab), with a whopping 64 GB, switching between drives in just 27.7 seconds at 2.42 GB/sec. Absolutely respectable terrain here.
In-game performance was noticeably snappy with our 4TB review unit going through intense sessions of Destiny 2 at lightning speed with no noticeable lag compared to some other Gen 4.0 drives I’ve used with this game. If you’re looking for a drive that won’t break the bank in your PC for higher capacities, then the Crucial P3 Plus may come in handy.
While not advertised as a PS5 SSD, I also decided to see what the Crucial P3 Plus 4TB could do when plugged into Sony’s latest system. The drive came in just below the recommended minimum benchmarks for what the hardware manufacturer recommends, and was recognized by my console and worked flawlessly in every game and file transfer test I threw at it.
To see what this DRAM-less SSD could do, I transferred a total of 88.89GB of data from my PS5’s internal storage to the P3 Plus, and the results surprised me. Matrix Awakens, 25.27 GB, was written to the NVMe SSD in just 22 seconds, with Fortnite and the larger file size of 32.95 GB, successfully installed in just 28 seconds; absolutely nothing wrong with the rates here.
Said games that made the switch performed as if they were installed natively on the console’s internal drive, with no immediate noticeable difference in the hours I played. It must be said, should PS5 be a priority here, you’ll have a better time opting for the Crucial P5 Plus (opens in new tab) instead that is custom-made for the system. However, if you want to throw in a P3 Plus, I can confirm that it works fine.
Should you buy the Crucial P3 Plus 4TB SSD?
The Crucial P3 Plus is a decent performing drive for a budget price, especially when considering higher capacities like 2TB and 4TB. It offers excellent value for money, even if it is a bit unobtrusive.
However, there is not much difference between the cost of this model and its successor, the P5 Plus. Given the choice between the two, the latter wins out, but if you can find it on sale, it’s well worth a spot in your PC’s M.2 port.
How we tested the Crucial P3 Plus 4TB SSD
I’ve been using the Crucial P3 Plus 4TB as my main SSD for gaming and work for the past week. During this time, I’ve used industry-standard tools, CrystalDiskMark, and AnvilPro, in addition to my own internal testing, to determine the values of this Gen 4.0 drive. I also made sure to put it to the test in the PS5’s SSD bay, to use it for game transfers and play games directly from it.
Read more about how we test SSDs and hard drives (opens in new tab) in the full GameMe Hardware Policy (opens in new tab).
If you need more storage, but in the form of something more externally shaped, check out our guides to the best external hard drives, best PS5 external hard drivesand best Xbox Series X external hard drives.
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