WD_Black SN770 2TB — Independent Benchmark Findings
The SN770 sits in WD's Black gaming line as a DRAM-less PCIe 4.0 x4 drive that targets the price tier just below the SN850X. The figures below come from third-party reviews of the drive's various capacities, with the 2TB tier called out where reviewers tested it specifically.
Headline Sequential Numbers
Per the WD product specifications, the SN770 is rated for up to 5,150 MB/s sequential read and up to 4,900 MB/s sequential write on the 1TB tier. The 2TB tier is rated the same on reads but slightly lower on writes due to the controller architecture.
Tom's Hardware's SN770 review measured the drive at 5.15 GB/s throughput and 800,000 random IOPS over PCIe 4.0, calling it an "aggressive price point that redefines our expectations for a mainstream SSD." The publication's 2TB-specific testing notes that the 2TB capacity is not quite as fast as the 1TB tier on certain benchmarks but remains ahead of PCIe 3.0 drives and many older Gen4 alternatives.
2TB-Specific Findings
TweakTown's review of the 2TB variant specifically positions the drive as the fastest of the Gen4 "5,000 MB/s class" SSDs, ahead of several eight-channel competing drives despite its DRAM-less design and four-channel controller. HotHardware's review reaches a similar conclusion at the 1TB tier, with strong gaming load-time performance backing the "killer Gen4 storage for gamers" framing.
DirectStorage Support
The SN770 supports Microsoft's DirectStorage API, which allows games to load assets directly from the SSD to the GPU and bypass the CPU. This matters specifically for newer titles that integrate DirectStorage natively — Forspoken and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart shipped with explicit DirectStorage paths — where the protocol can reduce in-game loading times measurably versus a traditional storage path on the same drive.
SLC Cache and Sustained Writes
As a DRAM-less drive using SanDisk's 112-layer BiCS5 TLC flash, the SN770 relies on dynamic SLC caching to hit peak write speeds. Reviewers consistently note the drive holds peak performance through normal-size workloads (game installs, large file transfers up to several tens of gigabytes) before the cache exhausts. The 2TB capacity has a larger dynamic SLC cache pool than the 1TB or 500GB tiers, which is one of the practical reasons the larger capacity is more forgiving on sustained writes despite the slightly lower headline write number.
Endurance and Warranty
WD rates the 2TB SN770 at 1,200 TBW endurance under a 5-year limited warranty. At typical desktop write rates (~30 GB/day average for active users) that endurance budget represents roughly 100 years of capacity-write headroom, well beyond the warranty period.
Where the SN770 2TB Fits
- Primary gaming drive — fast game install times, fast asset streaming, DirectStorage support, 2TB capacity comfortable for modern multi-100GB titles
- Creator workstation secondary drive — Photoshop / Lightroom catalog drive, DaVinci Resolve cache drive, project working directory
- Console upgrades (M.2 2280 / heatsink required) — PS5 internal expansion requires an attached heatsink (the SN770 does not include one); buyers planning a PS5 upgrade should pair with an aftermarket heatsink or consider WD's SN850X which is available in a PS5-licensed heatsink variant
Sources & Citations
- Tom's Hardware, "WD Black SN770 SSD Review: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing," tomshardware.com (accessed 2026-05-16)
- TweakTown, "WD_BLACK SN770 2TB SSD Review," tweaktown.com (accessed 2026-05-16)
- HotHardware, "WD Black SN770 SSD Review: Killer Gen 4 Storage For Gamers," hothardware.com (accessed 2026-05-16)
- The SSD Review, "WD_Black SN770 Gen 4 SSD Review," thessdreview.com (accessed 2026-05-16)
- Western Digital, "WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD product page," westerndigital.com (accessed 2026-05-16)
- Microsoft, "DirectStorage Developer Preview," devblogs.microsoft.com (accessed 2026-05-16)
Last verified: 2026-05-16
