G-Technology G-DRIVE SSD Review

It’s been a little while since we’ve seen their gear in the lab, but we’ve known the G-Technology team at this point for a decade or longer. G-Technology is a division of Western Digital, and is known for their RAID enclosures, hard drives and SSDs designed specifically for the discerning creative professional. As needs change and performance becomes paramount for this audience, G-Technology SSDs stand out from the crowd, delivering industry leading solutions for use in both the field and the office. In this joint review, we take a look at three of the leading G-Technology SSD solutions, quickly catching up on this portion of the WD portfolio designed to address the needs of the high-end content creator audience.

It’s been a little while since we’ve seen their gear in the lab, but we’ve known the G-Technology team at this point for a decade or longer. G-Technology is a division of Western Digital, and is known for their RAID enclosures, hard drives and SSDs designed specifically for the discerning creative professional. As needs change and performance becomes paramount for this audience, G-Technology SSDs stand out from the crowd, delivering industry leading solutions for use in both the field and the office. In this joint review, we take a look at three of the leading G-Technology SSD solutions, quickly catching up on this portion of the WD portfolio designed to address the needs of the high-end content creator audience.

We also have a video overview of the family with a complete teardown of the desktop SSD unit.

G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile SSD

The G-DRIVE Mobile SSD is a rugged portable SSD that comes in capacities up to 2TB and offers reliable performance. Tough both inside and out this drive features a protective aluminum core to prevent overheating and maintain performance and it leverages SSD technology for added shock and vibration resistance. Additionally, this drive has been designed with IP67 water/dust resistance, 1000 lbs crush resistance, and 3-meter drop protection. Connectivity wise, it features a USB-C port with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface and comes with a USB 3.0/2.0 cable adapter for backwards compatibility. Weighing in at just 86 grams is the smallest and lightest in the G-DRIVE SSD family.

G-DRIVE Mobile SSD Specifications

To test the performance of the G-Technology G-DRIVEs we will be looking at BlackMagic on a current generation MacBook Air and IOMeter on a Lenovo M90n-1 NANO IoT.

For Blackmagic the G-DRIVE Mobile SSD was able to hit 507.8 MB/s read and 450.2 MB/s write.

Moving on to IOMeter, we ran 1 thread testing. When looking at 2MB sequential the G-DRIVE Mobile SSD hit 491 MB/s read and 443 MB/s write. Looking at 2MB random speeds, we saw 404 MB/s read and 447 MB/s write. In random 4K the G-DRIVE Mobile SSD hit 5897 IOPS read and 11,983 IOPS write.

G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD

The G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD is the bigger badder brother to the G-Drive Mobile SSD offering massive performance gains. Coming in capacities up to 2TB, this drive upgrades to PCIe SSD technology and leverages a Thunderbolt 3 port to offer more powerful performance. What that translates to in use case is that you can edit 8K footage at full frame rate and transfer up to a terabyte of media in under seven minutes. G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD weighs in under a half pound and its dimensions of 4.41 x 3.15 x 0.67 inches offer great portability for the function. Additionally, it offers the same robust build features including a protective aluminum core to prevent overheating and maintain performance, shock and vibration resistance, IP67 water/dust resistance, 1000 lbs crush resistance, and 3-meter drop protection. Meaning your data will be safe from the occasional accidental drop and then some. 

G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD Specifications

To test the performance of the G-Technology G-DRIVEs we will be looking at BlackMagic on a current generation MacBook Air and IOMeter on a Lenovo ThinkPad P73.

For Blackmagic the G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD was able to hit 2,335.0 MB/s read and 2,050.6 MB/s write.

Moving on to IOMeter, we ran 1 thread and 16 thread testing. We’ll start with 1 thread performance. When looking at 2MB sequential the G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD hit 1,901 MB/s read and 650 MB/s write. Looking at 2MB random speeds, we saw 2,057 MB/s read and 476 MB/s write. In random 4K the G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD hit 5,753 IOPS read and 1,490 IOPS write.

Now we’ll dive into 16 thread performance. For 2MB sequential we saw 2,665 MB/s read and 1,145 MB/s write.  For 2MB random we saw 2,694 MB/s read and 1,213 MB/s write. Finally, for random 4K speeds hit 119,259 IOPS and 15,501 IOPS respectively for read and write.

G-Technology G-DRIVE Pro SSD

The G-DRIVE Pro SSD rounds out this hat-trick of drives and is the top of the line offering for the G-DRIVE portfolio. This model goes big in both size and in features. The G-Drive Pro SSD offers up to 7.68 TB of high endurance Enterprise-class SSD storage, dual thunderbolt 3 ports, and sustainably fast transfer rates up to 2800 MB/s. With the G-DRIVE Pro SSD you can edit multi-stream 8K footage at full frame rate, quickly render VR projects and experience them at full resolution, and transfer as much as a terabyte of content in seven minutes or less. Built in a space grey aluminum case the G-DRIVE Pro SSD provides a stackable desktop storage solution that will complement any workspace. Also, with its dual Thunderbolt 3 ports you can daisy chain up to five additional devices through a single connection to your computer. Dimensions on this drive are 8.27 x 5.12 x 1.79 inches and it weighs 2.29 lbs.

G-DRIVE Pro SSD Specifications

To test the performance of the G-Technology G-DRIVEs we will be looking at BlackMagic on a current generation MacBook Air and IOMeter on a Lenovo ThinkPad P73.

For Blackmagic the G-DRIVE Pro SSD was able to hit 2,028 MB/s read and 947.9 MB/s write.

Moving on to IOMeter, we ran 1 thread and 16 thread testing. We’ll start with 1 thread performance. When looking at 2MB sequential the G-DRIVE Pro SSD hit 725 MB/s read and 684 MB/s write. Looking at 2MB random speeds, we saw 788 MB/s read and 706 MB/s write. In random 4K the G-DRIVE Pro hit 6,964 IOPS read and 11,892 IOPS write.

Now we’ll dive into 16 thread performance. For 2MB sequential we saw 2,708 MB/s read and 894 MB/s write.  For 2MB random we saw 2,711 MB/s read and 932 MB/s write. Finally, for random 4K speeds hit 98,873 IOPS and 145,346 IOPS respectively for read and write.

Conclusion

The G-Technology G-DRIVE portfolio offers a nice variety of drives that scale well with each tier fitting into its own niche in the market. The mobile drives offer capacities up to 2TB and the Pro offers up to 7.68TB. The entire family has been designed and built with quality materials that not only look and feel nice in hand but also offer practical durability and performance benefits. The G-DRIVE Mobile SSD is a great entry level SSD and pocket-sized option. The G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD packs the most punch for its size and offers PCIe SSD technology. The G-DRIVE Pro features extra bells and whistles not offered by the mobile options and offers lucrative Enterprise-class storage in a scalable desktop solution.

To test the performance of the G-Technology G-DRIVEs we ran BlackMagic on a current generation MacBook Air and IOMeter on a Lenovo M90n-1 IoT and ThinkPad P73 for the Thunderbolt-equipped models. Looking at BlackMagic, the G-DRIVE Mobile SSD was able to hit 507.8 MB/s read and 450.2 MB/s write, the G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD was able to hit 2,335.0 MB/s read and 2,050.6 MB/s write, and the G-DRIVE Pro SSD was able to hit 2,028 MB/s read and 947.9 MB/s write.  

In IOMeter, we ran both 1 thread and 16 thread testing.  Starting with the Mobile SSD this drive hit speeds of 491 MB/s in our 2MB read testing. Moving on to the Mobile Pro SSD, this drive is the fastest of the bunch and performance was roughly five times that of the non-pro drive. Top results in IOMeter for this drive were seen in our 16 thread 2MB sequential with 2,694 MB/s read and 1,213 MB/s write and random 4K with 119,259 IOPS read and 15,501 IOPS write.  Lastly, the G-DRIVE Pro did best in 16 thread 2MB random with 2,708 MB/s read and 894 MB/s write and random 4K where it hit 98,873 IOPS read and 145,346 IOPS write. 

Overall, the entire family performed incredibly well. The mobile The Mobile SSD is well suited for your typical business use cases. The middle option, Mobile Pro, offers the strong speeds and can handle editing 8K on the go. While the Pro SSD doesn’t claim the top spot in write speed it does offer huge write endurance and write performance that doesn’t drop off under load, which is key for its intended uses which include VR rendering.

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