I've had a 980PRO as main and an SN850X as secondary drive. When the faulty firmware took my Samsung out, I placed the SN850X as main, and for a while I got an SN770 DRAM-less. As long as you have it in a proper gen4 x4 M.2 slot, it works marvelously. Zero complains. Even for "light" DX11 games it was like, no perceptible difference. Now I got the 990Pro and kept my SN770 DRAM-less for a time of need. My point is, even the DRAM-less became good, lately. Furthermore, I guess now with fast DDR5 will be even better. Sorry, though, I have no idea about KIOXIA yet. Haven't had the opportunity. But the SN770 seems faster on paper and the synthetic tests I tried than this KIOXIA.

@NiColaoS dram on read speeds plays no role ,so dramless drives might not get the faster write speeds but that's it. For gaming you care about read speeds

Venix:

@NiColaoS dram on read speeds plays no role ,so dramless drives might not get the faster write speeds but that's it. For gaming you care about read speeds

Alright, then. It was simply my perception since the DRAM-less SSDs they do synergy with RAM. Seemingly, I was wrong. However, the read speeds especially in games I mentioned, matter and they're fine. As you see on the article or each article about DRAM-less, they slow down the moment they hit a wall on cache. In any case, DRAM-less for storage is more than perfect and as I said, even in games. Just not the heaviest games. The main problem with DRAM-less you'll notice in case you copy large files. After a while the speed goes down, then up, then down, again, while the "normal" SSDs with RAM, it's usually steady. Currently, as my main drive, the Samsung 990Pro has 4266Mhz RAM which is great. Similarly, just slightly, imperceptible slower, the Western Digital SN850X. I'm happy camper. When I'll get a new M/B (upgrade), I'll keep an eye on one with 3 M.2 slots. I also use a Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus and the second x16 slot might be used for those cards that hold 4 NVME SSDs. Too bad I'm on an X570. Currently, the B650 look nicer already, but don't think still worth it. Perhaps the new iteration. Unless I go X670E but not only wouldn't worth (unless I upgrade everything), it's still expensive.

@NiColaoS I am well aware! I consciously buy dramless ssds like my Samsung 980 1tb and my 4 tb lexar !

Venix:

@NiColaoS I am well aware! I consciously buy dramless ssds like my Samsung 980 1tb and my 4 tb lexar !

The new Western Digital SN770 proved to be one of the best DRAM-less. Just so you know. They achieved that by re-structuring the NANDs and use the same method as the SN850X.

NiColaoS:

The new Western Digital SN770 proved to be one of the best DRAM-less. Just so you know. They achieved that by re-structuring the NANDs and use the same method as the SN850X.

Yes I know I have my Samsung 980 well over 2 years now :P

I didn't know what to expect with DRAM-less nvme. So much misinformation on the web. After I got one, it's totally fine. Read speeds are as fast as my Evo 970 Plus. Write speeds also seem fast to me, but I never had to copy tons of GB at the same time. I mean, downloading Steam games is not exactly a load that requires fast writing speeds. Also, the thing some people write on the web about how "it uses system RAM and thus less memory is available for your system" is complete and utter BS. It uses exactly 32MB here. That's nothing. So I think for regular use, the only disadvantage of DRAM-less is endurance?

DRAM-less become good as time passes as well. Especially for the majority of people. Gen 4 x4 you won't notice many differences. Only if you copy large files the performance will start dropping, going up, dropping again, incosistent, in a word. Games load fine. Perhaps 0,5sec slower than my SN850X and 1sec slower than my 990PRO. I'm talking about Cyberpunk 2.10, here. Otherwise, the the most differences are imperceptible. Older, light, DX11 games, those load instantaneously on most SSDs anyway. Something last to keep in mind, the new DRAM-less are only slightly cheaper than those with RAM. Western Digital achieved extremely good speeds by a new controller and restructuring the flash nands. Their method is called Brics6 if memory serves. Only on SN850X (with DRAM), SN770 (DRAM-less) and newer. I've had read about, but forgot the details. 970 EVO Plus is Gen 3. It's totally normal even the new DRAM-less (Gen 4) to be in many metrics better. The 970 EVO Plus is better only in consistency since it has RAM and the SSD was good to begin with.