Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 4TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Review (2026)

Posted on June 24, 2026 by Raymond Chen

The 4 TB Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 is the flagship PCIe 5.0 model and the first Exceria Pro to reach 4 TB, pairing a Silicon Motion SM2508 controller with 218-layer BiCS8 TLC NAND.

Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 4TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Review

Controller & Memory

The Exceria Pro G2 is Kioxia's fastest consumer NVMe SSD and its first true PCIe 5.0 flagship under the Exceria Pro badge. The 4 TB model is the top of the range and, notably, the first time the Exceria Pro line has reached 4 TB after topping out at 2 TB on the previous generation. That puts it up against flagship Gen5 drives such as the Crucial T705 and Samsung 9100 Pro while offering more raw capacity than most of them, which is the whole point of stepping up to the 4 TB card.

Inside, the drive pairs Silicon Motion's 8-channel SM2508 PCIe 5.0 controller with Kioxia's own 218-layer BiCS8 3D TLC NAND and an LPDDR4 DRAM cache. On the 4 TB card that stack delivers the family's highest numbers: 14,900 MB/s sequential reads, 13,700 MB/s writes and around 2.3 million random read IOPS, along with a 2,400 TBW endurance rating. TLC NAND rather than QLC is what keeps sustained writes and long-term reliability predictable on a drive expected to hold years of data.

What separates the Pro G2 from many early Gen5 drives is efficiency. Several reviewers highlight that it runs surprisingly cool for the platform, holding its performance in cases with ordinary airflow instead of demanding a dedicated heatsink and fan. On a 4 TB card that composure matters, because a drive this large tends to be asked to sustain long backup, export and transfer jobs where a hotter drive would throttle and leave you waiting.

Exceria Pro G2 Performance & Benchmarks

On paper the 4 TB Exceria Pro G2 is rated for 14,900 MB/s sequential reads and 13,700 MB/s writes, with around 2,300,000 random read and 1,950,000 random write IOPS, the highest figures in the family. In daily use that sequential headroom shows up when moving large files, game libraries, video projects or virtual machine images, and at 4 TB there is room to keep plenty of them on the fast tier. For ordinary booting and browsing the gap to a good PCIe 4.0 drive is smaller than the raw numbers suggest, because those workloads are rarely sequential. Gen5 earns its keep in sustained throughput and high-queue-depth random performance, the conditions DirectStorage-era games and creative tools are starting to use. Reviewers measuring the Pro G2 family confirm it reaches its advertised figures while staying efficient on power and heat, which helps it keep performing under sustained loads rather than throttling. For capacity and outright speed together, the 4 TB is the ceiling of the range.

Performance comparison

Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 4 TB vs M.2 5.0 x 4 peers

Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 5.0 x 4 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.

  • Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 4 TB (this drive): 14,900 MB/s read, 13,700 MB/s write
  • Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 2 TB: 14,900 MB/s read, 13,400 MB/s write
  • PNY XLR8 CS3250 4 TB: 14,900 MB/s read, 13,500 MB/s write
  • Samsung 9100 Pro 4 TB: 14,800 MB/s read, 13,400 MB/s write
  • Samsung 9100 Pro 8 TB: 14,800 MB/s read, 13,400 MB/s write

Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 vs Competitors

See how the Exceria Pro G2 stacks up against other M.2 5.0 x 4 drives in our database:

Endurance, TBW & Warranty

The 4 TB Exceria Pro G2 carries a 2,400 TBW endurance rating and a 5-year limited warranty, the largest endurance figure in the family, and for nearly every owner the warranty is what expires first. Twenty-four hundred terabytes written is roughly 1,315 GB of writes every day for five years, staggeringly more than a typical 20 to 50 GB daily consumer workload. At 50 GB per day you would need around 131 years to exhaust the rated endurance, so the NAND will outlast the warranty many times over and wear is simply not a concern, even on a drive holding a large media library. Kioxia backs the card for five years from purchase, and as a major manufacturer RMAs are handled through Kioxia or the retailer rather than an anonymous seller. Given how much data a 4 TB drive tends to accumulate, that backing is worth keeping active, so retain your proof of purchase and register the drive if prompted.

Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 4 TB Specifications

Category Value
Capacity [?] 4 TB
Interface [?] M.2 5.0 x 4
Controller [?] Silicon Motion SM2508 8 Channel
Memory type [?] Kioxia BiCS8 218-L 3D TLC
DRAM [?] Yes
Read speed (MB/s) [?] 14900
Write speed (MB/s) [?] 13700
Read IOPS [?] 2300000
Write IOPS [?] 1950000
Endurance (TBW) [?] 2400
MTBF (million hours) [?] 2000000
Warranty (years) [?] 5

Verdict: Is the Exceria Pro G2 Worth It in 2026?

The 4 TB Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 is the flagship of the range and the first Exceria Pro to reach 4 TB. It pairs the family's top 14,900 MB/s read and 13,700 MB/s write speeds with the highest IOPS and a 2,400 TBW rating, all on the modern SM2508 plus BiCS8 TLC platform and a 5-year warranty, while running cooler than most Gen5 rivals. Choose it if you are a content creator, archivist or enthusiast who wants maximum fast capacity in a single slot. Most buyers are better served by the 2 TB sweet spot, and anyone on a PCIe 4.0-only board should skip the line, since you would pay for Gen5 headroom you cannot use.

+ Pros

  • PCIe 5.0 top speeds: 14,900 MB/s read, 13,700 MB/s write
  • First 4 TB capacity in the Exceria Pro line
  • Up to 2,300,000 random read IOPS
  • Silicon Motion SM2508 controller with BiCS8 218L TLC
  • LPDDR4 DRAM cache and 2,400 TBW endurance
  • Runs cool for a Gen5 drive
  • 5-year warranty

- Cons

  • Most expensive model in the range
  • Needs a PCIe 5.0 platform to justify the speed
  • Overkill for casual or budget builds

4.5 / 5 · 101 votes

Buy this or similar SSD Storage:

Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB

-57% $165
List Price: $379.99

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Video Review

Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD video review

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, it works in a PS5. The console accepts standard M.2 2280 NVMe drives and PCIe 5.0 is backward compatible, but the PS5 expansion slot is PCIe 4.0, so the drive runs at Gen4 speeds rather than its full 14,900 MB/s. A heatsink is required for PS5 use. At 4 TB it is an excellent PS5 upgrade if you want a huge library always installed, though the 2 TB offers better value for most players.

It runs cooler than most PCIe 5.0 drives, which is a standout trait, and on a modern desktop with reasonable airflow many owners run it without added cooling. For sustained heavy writes or a cramped case, a basic M.2 heatsink is sensible insurance against throttling, and one is required for PS5 installation. Most current motherboards include an M.2 shield that already covers the drive.

For pure gaming the real-world gain over PCIe 4.0 is smaller than the spec sheets suggest, because few games saturate a Gen5 link today. PCIe 5.0 pays off more in large file transfers, video editing and 3D work, and it buys forward compatibility as engines and DirectStorage mature. If you only game and want to save money a strong Gen4 drive stays competitive; the 4 TB Pro G2 suits enthusiasts who also want maximum fast capacity.

The 4 TB model is rated for 2,400 TBW, terabytes written, over its life with a 5-year warranty, the highest endurance in the family. That is roughly 1,315 GB of writes per day for five years, far beyond any normal 20 to 50 GB daily workload, so the NAND outlasts the warranty by more than a century in typical use. Endurance is not a concern even on a drive this large.

Yes, it uses an LPDDR4 DRAM cache alongside the Silicon Motion SM2508 controller and BiCS8 TLC NAND. The DRAM cache speeds up the flash translation layer for faster random access and steadier performance than DRAM-less designs, which matters on a 4 TB drive holding an operating system, games and large project files. It helps the card hold up under mixed and heavy workloads.

The 1 TB and 2 TB share the same controller, NAND and 5-year warranty, but the 4 TB is the only one to reach 4 TB and posts the family's highest numbers: 14,900 MB/s reads, 13,700 MB/s writes, up to 2.3 million read IOPS and 2,400 TBW. The 2 TB remains the value sweet spot for most buyers; the 4 TB is for people who specifically need the maximum capacity and top throughput in one drive.

Yes. The combination of 4 TB of capacity, 14,900 MB/s reads, an LPDDR4 DRAM cache, TLC NAND and a 2,400 TBW rating makes it well suited to video editing, 3D rendering and managing large media libraries or working files, where both throughput and room to store matter. It is a single M.2 consumer drive rather than a NAS or enterprise part, so for critical archives pair it with a proper backup rather than relying on one card.

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