The EXCERIA G3 SSD series, an entry-level model supporting PCIe 5.0, takes performance to the next level with up to 10,000MB/s of sequential read speed — not only accelerating everyday PC tasks but also supporting AI applications and helping build a comfortable gaming environment. PCIe Gen 5 doubles the available bandwidth of Gen 4, and the Exceria G3 is Kioxia’s deliberate entry point into that tier — priced to make Gen 5 accessible rather than reserved for enthusiast builds. It is fully backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0 platforms, where it will operate at Gen 4 speeds.

BiCS FLASH — Kioxia’s Own NAND, QLC at This Tier

Each Exceria G3 SSD is built with Kioxia BiCS FLASH — a vertically stacked cell structure delivering a cutting-edge storage experience. At the 1TB capacity, the Exceria G3 uses QLC (Quad-Level Cell) NAND — four bits per cell, which enables the high density needed to keep a PCIe 5 drive at an accessible price point. QLC NAND has lower raw write endurance than TLC, which is worth knowing upfront. For read-heavy workloads — gaming, content consumption, OS and application loading — this is largely a non-issue. For sustained large write workloads, the SLC cache will eventually exhaust and write speeds will taper. As the inventor of NAND flash, Kioxia’s BiCS FLASH manufacturing and quality control standards are well-established — this is not generic OEM flash.

NVMe 2.0c — Lower Latency by Design

Utilising NVMe 2.0c technology, the Exceria G3 SSDs reduce latency in your system’s I/O path between your SSD and CPU, resulting in smooth and responsive performance. NVMe 2.0c is the latest revision of the NVMe standard — an incremental but meaningful improvement in queue management and command processing efficiency over the NVMe 1.4 found on most Gen 4 drives.

Innovative Thermal Label — No Separate Heatsink Required

EXCERIA G3 SSDs feature innovative product labels to enhance heat dissipation for advanced performance stability. Rather than a traditional aluminium heatsink, the Exceria G3 uses a thermally active label that dissipates heat across the drive surface. This keeps the drive’s profile slim — at just 2.38mm height — and avoids the clearance issues that bulkier heatsinks can cause in compact builds and laptops. A motherboard-integrated M.2 heatsink is recommended for sustained PCIe 5 workloads in desktop systems.

SSD Utility — Health Monitoring and Percentage Life Left

SSD Utility management software was designed to help your Kioxia drive thrive, putting you in control of maintenance, monitoring, and more — including checking Percentage Life Left using the health gauge. Kioxia’s warranty is tied to Percentage Life Left reaching zero, making the SSD Utility’s health gauge a directly useful tool for tracking remaining drive life.

PCIe Gen 5 slot required for full performance — the Exceria G3 requires a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot for its rated 10,000MB/s read speed. It is backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0 at approximately half the rated sequential speeds (~5,000MB/s read). PCIe Gen 5 M.2 slots are found on Intel 12th/13th/14th Gen and AMD Ryzen 7000-series platforms with appropriate motherboards — verify support before ordering.

QLC NAND — important to understand — the Exceria G3 1TB uses QLC flash. Excellent for read-heavy workloads and everyday use; sustained heavy write workloads will see speed reduction once the SLC cache is exhausted. For write-intensive use cases, consider a TLC-based Gen 4 alternative.

Thermal management — the Exceria G3’s thermal label provides passive heat dissipation, but sustained PCIe 5 workloads generate significant heat. A motherboard M.2 heatsink is recommended for desktop builds where the drive will be pushed hard. Without active or passive heatsink supplementation, thermal throttling may occur during extended sequential writes.

TBW — Kioxia has not published a TBW figure for the Exceria G3 in easily accessible sources; the warranty is effective until the Percentage Life Left gauge reaches zero. Monitor drive health via the SSD Utility to track remaining endurance.

Key Highlights

• Capacity: 1TB
• Form Factor: M.2 2280 (single-sided)
• Interface: PCIe Gen 5 x4 / NVMe 2.0c (backwards compatible with PCIe Gen 4)
• Interface Speed: 128 GT/s
• Sequential Read/Write: Up to 10,000 / 8,900 MB/s
• Random Read/Write IOPS: Up to 1,300,000 / 1,450,000
• NAND: Kioxia BiCS FLASH QLC (in-house)
• DRAM Cache: None (SLC caching used)
• Thermal Management: Innovative thermally active product label
• Dimensions: 80.15 × 22.15 × 2.38mm
• Weight: 5.7g
• Protocol: NVMe 2.0c
• Software: Kioxia SSD Utility (download — health monitoring, Percentage Life Left gauge, firmware updates)

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The Legend 970 uses a Phison E26 controller paired with Micron 232-layer TLC NAND flash. The Phison PS5026-E26 is an 8-channel PCIe 5.0 controller — the reference silicon for the first generation of consumer Gen 5 drives, and well-understood at this point through extensive third-party testing. TLC NAND stores three bits per cell, giving the Legend 970 a meaningful endurance advantage over QLC-based Gen 5 alternatives. The 2GB of Hynix DDR4 DRAM running at DDR4-2666 supports the controller’s mapping table management — dedicated on-drive DRAM that delivers superior random performance and sustained speed consistency compared to HMB DRAM-less designs.

Active Cooling — A First in Consumer SSD Design

The Legend 970’s heatsink is the most distinctive hardware feature in our entire SSD range. The pre-installed dual-layer aluminium fins create a dense air duct to divert hot and cold air. A built-in micro fan draws cold air from openings in the nameplate and directs it towards the aluminium fins — expelling heat from both sides. This active heat dissipation design delivers significantly cooler temperatures than a fanless heatsink by approximately 10%. PCIe Gen 5 SSDs generate considerably more heat than Gen 4 under sustained load, and the Legend 970’s active cooling addresses this more directly than the thermal labels or passive heatsinks used by competing Gen 5 drives.

The correct perspective on the fan is that ADATA is simply making sure that your SSD gives its full performance at all times — thermal throttling under sustained Gen 5 loads is a real concern for passive designs, and the Legend 970 eliminates it with a purpose-built active cooling solution.

DRAM Cache, SLC Cache, and Real-World Performance

The Legend 970 leverages both a SLC cache algorithm and a DRAM cache buffer, featuring 4K random read/write IOPS up to 1,400K/1,400K. The SLC cache on the 1TB model covers approximately 150GB of incoming sequential writes at full speed — more than sufficient for typical gaming, content creation, and OS workloads. Beyond the SLC cache, sequential write speed settles at around 1,700MB/s — not bad, but a long way from the drive’s peak. For workloads that involve sustained sequential writes beyond 150GB at a stretch, this is worth knowing.

LDPC ECC, AES-256, and SSD Toolbox

The Legend 970 adopts LDPC error correction and AES 256-bit high-level encryption technology to ensure the accuracy of data transmission and the security of files. ADATA’s SSD Toolbox provides drive information, diagnostics, secure erase and firmware update utilities, TRIM settings, benchmarking, and drive cloning capability. ADATA also includes Backup ToGo for wider storage media backup functionality.

700TBW and 5-Year Warranty — Serious Long-Term Coverage

ADATA backs the Legend 970 with a 5-year warranty and a 700TBW endurance rating per TB of capacity. At 700TBW for the 1TB model, that’s the highest TBW figure in our entire NVMe range — over four times the ADATA Legend 800’s 210TBW at 512GB, and dramatically ahead of the budget Gen 4 tier. MTBF is rated at 1,600,000 hours.

PCIe Gen 5 slot required — the Legend 970 requires a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot for its full rated performance. It is backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0, where it operates at approximately half the rated speeds. PCIe Gen 5 M.2 is found on Intel 12th/13th/14th Gen and AMD Ryzen 7000-series platforms with appropriate Gen 5-capable motherboards — verify slot support before ordering.

Active fan requires SATA power — the heatsink fan is connected via a SATA power cable, which requires an available SATA power connector from the PSU to activate the active cooling effect. Systems without SATA power available (e.g. all-NVMe builds without optical drives or SATA storage) may need an adaptor. The drive functions without fan power but with reduced thermal headroom under sustained loads.

Heatsink clearance — the pre-installed heatsink requires adequate installation space. If your motherboard has its own M.2 heatsink, remove it first before installing the Legend 970. The dual-layer fin stack is substantially taller than a typical M.2 heatsink — verify clearance against adjacent PCIe slots, RAM, and the CPU cooler.

1TB vs 2TB speeds — the 10,000/10,000MB/s headline applies to the 2TB model. The 1TB is rated at 9,500/8,500MB/s — still the highest sequential figures in this range, but worth noting the distinction.

Key Highlights

• Capacity: 1TB
• Form Factor: M.2 2280
• Interface: PCIe Gen 5 x4 / NVMe 2.0 (backwards compatible with PCIe Gen 4)
• Sequential Read/Write: Up to 9,500 / 8,500 MB/s
• Random Read/Write IOPS: Up to 1,300,000 / 1,400,000
• NAND: Micron 232-layer 3D TLC
• Controller: Phison PS5026-E26 (8-channel PCIe 5.0)
• DRAM Cache: 2GB Hynix DDR4-2666 (dedicated on-drive)
• SLC Cache: ~150GB (1TB model)
• Heatsink: Pre-installed dual-layer extruded aluminium fins with active micro fan
• Fan Power: SATA power connector (included cable)
• Error Correction: LDPC ECC
• Encryption: AES-256-bit hardware
• MTBF: 1,600,000 hours
• TBW: 700TB
• Software: ADATA SSD Toolbox, Backup ToGo
• Warranty: 5-year limited

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The Legend 970 Pro uses an InnoGrit IG5666 controller — making it one of the first consumer PCIe Gen 5 SSDs to move beyond the Phison E26 that has dominated the Gen 5 market since its introduction. The IG5666 is InnoGrit’s first client-focused PCIe Gen 5 controller, built on a 12nm TSMC process with eight ARM Cortex-R5 cores and NVMe 2.0 support, capable of accessing NAND flash at up to 2,400MT/s. It supports LDPC ECC, DRAM cache, and the PCIe 5.0 x4 interface. The controller is paired with Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND — the same generation of flash used in the best Phison E26 drives, and 2GB of Samsung DDR4-2666 DRAM cache for fast mapping table management.

Cable-Free Active Cooling — The Key Improvement Over the Standard 970

What makes the Legend 970 Pro stand out most clearly is its cooling design. While virtually all Gen 5 SSDs with active fans require external power through a SATA power connector or a PWM header, ADATA engineered a voltage conversion circuit on the PCB which generates the 12V needed for the fan from 3.3V, using a step-up controller — eliminating all cable mess. This directly addresses the most practical frustration with the standard Legend 970, which required a separate SATA power cable. The double-layered aluminium heatsink with integral air ducts and built-in micro fan is designed to support installation in tight spaces where oversized bulky heatsinks cannot fit.

740TBW — The Highest Endurance in This Range

The Legend 970 Pro carries a 740TBW endurance rating per 1TB of capacity — a generous step up from the 600TBW per TB seen on most competing Gen 5 drives. Across our entire SSD range, 740TBW is the highest figure available at 1TB capacity. ADATA backs this with a 5-year limited warranty — a strong long-term commitment on a premium PCIe 5.0 drive.

Performance in Context — What the Reviews Say

The IG5666 delivers strong sequential numbers and excellent random write performance. Synthetic 4K random I/O performance is highly impressive — even tested at 85% drive capacity, not empty. However, independent reviews note that the 1TB model does not consistently reach its peak rated sequential read speed of 14,000MB/s, delivering approximately 13,000MB/s in testing — still outstanding, but worth knowing. Power consumption is notably higher than newer-generation controllers like the SM2508 used in the Crucial T710, making this drive better suited to high-performance desktop builds than thermally constrained systems.

SLC Cache, AES-256, and ADATA Toolbox

The Legend 970 Pro uses a variety of data protection and error correction technologies alongside SLC caching to improve TBW and durability. It features LDPC error correction and AES 256-bit encryption to ensure data accuracy and file security. ADATA’s SSD Toolbox provides drive health monitoring, firmware management, S.M.A.R.T. data, and benchmarking, alongside the Backup ToGo migration utility.

PCIe Gen 5 slot required — full performance requires a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot. The drive is backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0 at approximately half the rated speeds. Compatible with Intel 13th/14th Gen and AMD Ryzen 7000-series platforms with Gen 5 M.2 support.

Cable-free fan — the active cooling fan is powered directly by the SSD’s on-board voltage converter. No external SATA cable or PWM header is needed — a significant improvement over the standard Legend 970.

1TB performance note — the 1TB Legend 970 Pro delivers approximately 13,000MB/s sequential read and 5,800–9,500MB/s write in independent testing, below the 14,000/11,000MB/s headline figures which apply to the 4TB model. If maximising sequential throughput at 1TB is the priority, the Crucial T710 1TB offers higher measured sequential speeds at this capacity.

Power consumption — the IG5666 draws more power than the SM2508 in the Crucial T710. This drive is designed for high-performance desktop builds with good airflow and is not suited to thermally constrained systems or laptops.

Key Highlights

• Capacity: 1TB
• Form Factor: M.2 2280
• Interface: PCIe Gen 5 x4 / NVMe 2.0 (backwards compatible with PCIe Gen 4)
• Sequential Read/Write (rated): Up to 13,000 / 9,500 MB/s
• Random Read/Write IOPS: Up to 1,700,000 / 1,250,000
• NAND: Micron 232-layer 3D TLC
• Controller: InnoGrit IG5666 (8-channel PCIe 5.0, 12nm TSMC, 8x Cortex-R5)
• DRAM Cache: 2GB Samsung DDR4-2666
• SLC Cache: Yes
• Heatsink: Pre-installed dual-layer aluminium fins with active micro fan
• Fan Power: On-board step-up converter (no SATA cable or PWM header required)
• Error Correction: LDPC ECC
• Encryption: AES-256-bit hardware
• TBW: 740TB
• Warranty: 5-year limited
• Software: ADATA SSD Toolbox, Backup ToGo

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The Mars 980 Pro and Mars 980 Blade share identical core hardware: the Silicon Motion SM2508 controller, Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND, 2GB on-drive DRAM cache, and the same PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe 2.0 interface. The distinction between the two drives is entirely in how heat is managed. Where the Blade uses a passive heatspreader suited to laptops and thermally moderate environments, the Pro features a precision-engineered aluminium fin heatsink with a hollow airflow structure that separates hot and cool air, with an integrated turbo fan that accelerates heat dissipation. Choose the Blade for laptop or PS5 installs where slim profile matters; choose the Pro for desktop builds where sustained peak performance under load is the priority.

Cable-Free Active Cooling — No SATA Required

Active cooling on the Mars 980 Pro is powered directly from the M.2 slot — no additional charging cable is needed. This is a significant practical improvement over the older Legend 970, which required a SATA power cable to activate its fan. The Pro’s on-board voltage conversion draws the fan’s power from the 3.3V M.2 supply, eliminating cable routing entirely and making installation no more complex than any passive drive.

SM2508 — The Most Efficient PCIe Gen 5 Controller

The SM2508 is an 8-channel PCIe Gen 5 controller built on TSMC’s 6nm process, featuring a quad-core ARM Cortex-R8 CPU complex. Its ~7W maximum power draw is significantly lower than the IG5666 controller used in the Legend 970 Pro — which means the active cooling on the Mars 980 Pro is managing a much smaller thermal load than competing active-cooled Gen 5 drives. The MARS 980 PRO uses carefully selected 232-layer 3D NAND flash and a variety of data protection and error correction technologies to improve TBW and durability to meet high-load requirements.

DRAM Cache, SLC Cache, and Exceptional Random Performance

The Mars 980 Pro comes with SLC caching and a DRAM cache buffer for system loading and data caching advantages, featuring 4K random read/write IOPS up to 2,000K and 1,650K for smoother multitasking. The dedicated on-drive DRAM stores the drive’s mapping tables, delivering consistently low latency on the small random file access patterns that dominate OS workloads — a meaningful advantage over HMB-based DRAM-less designs.

PS5 Compatible, AI Optimised, Intel and AMD Support

The Mars 980 Pro can be installed in the PS5 as an expansion drive, delivering read speeds up to 6,500MB/s in the console. It is optimised for AI workloads and supports the latest Intel and AMD platforms, with full backward compatibility with PCIe 4.0 systems.

SSD Toolbox and S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring

SSD Toolbox enhances overall performance and stability through firmware updates, while the Dashboard continuously monitors and reports S.M.A.R.T. data — including SSD health and remaining lifespan, current operating temperature, and storage capacity — so you can stay on top of your SSD status at all times.

PCIe Gen 5 slot required — the Mars 980 Pro delivers full performance on a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot. It is backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0 at approximately half the rated sequential speeds.

Heatsink clearance — the heatsink is pre-installed. Ensure your system has sufficient space before installation. If your motherboard includes a pre-mounted M.2 heatsink, remove it first before installing the Mars 980 Pro.

Pro vs Blade — the Mars 980 Pro and Mars 980 Blade are identical in core hardware and rated performance. The Pro adds cable-free active fan cooling suited to demanding desktop workloads; the Blade uses a passive heatspreader suited to laptops, PS5, and compact systems. At 1TB the rated sequential figures are the same.

1TB write speed — the 1TB model is rated at 10,000MB/s write versus 13,000MB/s on the 2TB and 4TB models due to fewer NAND dies. Same characteristic as the Blade variant.

Key Highlights

• Capacity: 1TB
• Form Factor: M.2 2280
• Interface: PCIe Gen 5 x4 / NVMe 2.0 (backwards compatible with PCIe Gen 4)
• Sequential Read/Write: Up to 14,000 / 10,000 MB/s
• PS5 Sequential Read: Up to 6,500 MB/s
• Random 4K Read/Write IOPS: Up to 2,000,000 / 1,650,000
• NAND: Micron 232-layer 3D TLC
• Controller: Silicon Motion SM2508 (8-channel PCIe 5.0, TSMC 6nm)
• DRAM Cache: 2GB LPDDR4-2666
• SLC Cache: Yes
• Heatsink: Pre-installed aluminium alloy heatsink with integrated turbo fan
• Fan Power: Directly from M.2 slot (no SATA cable or PWM header required)
• Active Cooling Advantage: Up to 15% lower temperatures vs fanless
• Error Correction: LDPC ECC
• Encryption: AES (Pyrite)
• PS5 Compatible: Yes
• MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
• TBW: 740TB
• Warranty: 5-year limited
• Software: XPG SSD Toolbox, S.M.A.R.T. Dashboard

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