Oops, snap, you are right! Sorry!
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So looking at the TechPowerUp page for the P41 I have serious doubts it is going to be any kind of power efficient
The P31 not only used PCIe 3.0 which reduced power draw but also used a 4-lane controller design that is generally reserved for budget or DRAM-less designs as it limits available bandwidth for I/O. What was unique about the P31 is whatever black-magic SK Hynix did enabled more than adequate performance despite a 4 lane controller. In contrast, the P41 does use an 8 lane controller at PCIe 4.0. So two different variables have been changed to affect power consumption and not for the better. Admittedly the thermal results do indicate an efficient drive so detailed power consumption figures are required but I guarantee it won’t be anywhere close as efficient as the P31.
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Yet another review, still lacking Power Consumption figures but has many useful charts
No power consumption figures, but no throttling observed - without airflow or heatsink.
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Another review is up but not very detailed
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WE FINALLY HAVE EFFICIENCY NUMBERS! Yes!
In terms of absolute values, the P31 is lower but the P41 is superior for performance per watt.
Relevant quote
"Those wanting to see how the Platinum P41 fares with power efficiency do not have to look any further. Not only does it beat the other PCIe 4.0 drives, it even exceeds the class-leading numbers put up by the Gold P31. The Gold P31 does have lower peak and average power draw, but the Platinum P41 can finish tasks far faster. The Gold P31 also has lower idle power consumption with ASPM/LPM disabled.
Testing power efficiency with more-nuanced tests might produce different results, but many users buy PCIe 4.0 drives for the raw bandwidth. Consumer workloads are generally pretty light and quick, with lots of idle time. Therefore, the value of power efficiency for an SSD is questionable past a certain point; however, we can get some idea with a quick copy test like this. The Platinum P41 is simply the most efficient of the high-end PCIe 4.0 drives to date.
The Platinum P41’s S.M.A.R.T. report shows two throttle points, at 86C for throttle and 87C for critical. In practice, we saw throttling around the 84-86C range as measured by the sensor, which corresponded to a 70-72C range for the NAND. During a write workload, we recorded the surface temperature at about 85C versus 82C reported by the sensor, so reports of the drive throttling by 90C, on FLIR, are accurate. We were able to find some relatively graceful throttling after writing about 420GB.
Consumer NAND flash is usually rated for a 0-70C operating range - the idea that NAND works better at higher temperatures must be taken within context. We do recommend that users equip this drive with a heatsink, if possible. This is especially true if you expect the drive to dwell in a warmer environment."
Small heatsink sounds like it would be perfect and keep drive temps well in check, especially in a thermally constrained environment like a laptop.
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This makes sense, it’s the latest (possibly last?) PCIe 4.0 drive developed focusing on speed - further developments are going to be for PCIe 5.0. SK Hynix came very late to the PCIe 4.0 game here. The bus limit was hit a while ago, the only improvements left were how to hit that barrier and stay there longer without throttling (efficiency). The development of DRAM-less drives focused on reducing cost while continuing to maintain performance, there are obviously some compromises.
This drive also has the advantage of the most advanced flash yet developed. And the drive controller has a promising heritage with the P31 - they just had to push it further.
SK Hynix was well aware of the competition, had the advantage of development time and worked to beat them all. I should know, I have a first-generation Sabrent Rocket 4.0. It’s an early PCIe 4.0 drive and it was class-leading at the time. It’s not at the top of the charts anymore, even Sabrent themselves passed it with the second-generation Rocket 4.0 Plus.
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Apologies for resurrecting an old thread… Just wanted to say, why did I only find out about this awesome SSD now? It was on sale for just over $200 (2 TB) in July, and now it’s nowhere to be found… Except on eBay, from Korea, for over $300 
Might have to go for it anyway for the awesome speed and efficiency. The WD SN850 seems to be quite a bit more power-hungry.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QVD9V7R/ref=twister_B09Z1QRS9G?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I’m not sure if you are in the US but if you are then it is still available.
Thanks, so that’s why it’s showing as unavailable - they don’t ship outside of the US. Sadly SK Hynix SSDs don’t seem to be distributed in Europe at all. Shame.
Yeah, that’s been a problem for SK Hynix since…forever actually. People complained about availability of the P31 as well (and rightly so).
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My question is if the P41 is actually worth getting if I already have a Sabrent Rocket 4 (2TB) or if it’ll only save a few minutes of battery life
Note the P41 is not the P31 (the efficiency champion). The P31 is PCIe 3.0, the P41 is PCIe 4.0 like the Sabrent Rocket 4. But it’s about the newest PCIe 4.0 high performance drive there is, so it benefits from the very latest flash, a new controller and lots of development time - SK Hynix was very late to the PCIe 4.0 party. By some metrics it’s the fastest PCIe 4.0 drive ever made - it certainly is in IOPS.
But it does get hot and it can consume a lot of power. The advantage is it can get through tasks so quickly it only consumes power in bursts while other drives will be at high power for longer.
Whether this has a meaningful impact on battery life I don’t know - my guess is that it would be marginal at best. If it idled at lower power it might, but the impact may again be marginal.
But there is a difference between the P31 and the P41.
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Just got this one for my upcoming AMD framework! I debated between the P31 and this one, and decided to go for the PCIe 4 version just because why not. It was only about $15 more for a 2TB drive with the ongoing prime day sale. It might get hot but hopefully not too hot under general use.
There are certainly some good options out there these days, hopefully prices drop for Gen4 as Gen5 increases.
Samsung 990 provides some faster speeds in both Seq writes and random write speeds while maintaining lower temps in average and high usage levels. The flash speed is faster too.
Samsung is more expensive (but is also on prime deal today), but it depends on how important those extra few MB/s are and trusting of the manufacturing. I think the larger die size helps with the heat dissapation too which will offset any “lower power consumption” the SK offers.
Just picked up a 1TB P41 on Amazon for $64 on sale. Deal probably ends sometime today. Just FYI.
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P41 Platinum 2TB still seems to be a tiny little bit more efficient while being a tiny little bit slower than the 990 Pro: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-990-pro-ssd-review/2. Both are certainly great SSDs.
Currently in Amazon Prime offers for 29% off, at least in Germany.
Leaving the problems I had with this SSD here, if you want to use the advanced 4K format, you can’t do this on Linux’s nvme-cli tool, I was using the secure erase feature of the Asus BIOS and successfully switched to the 4K block size.
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I just picked up the Solidigim P44 Pro (which is just the P41 Platinum under a different name, Solidigim is a subsidiary of SK Hynix) for only $50 for 1 TB with a great sale on Amazon. Link
Apparently the Crucial P3 (not P3 plus) has dethroned the Hynix offerings for most efficient write per watt, according to Tom’s hardware IIRC. Anyone have a Crucial P3 in use in an FW?