T2ID Portugal: Entry-level GPU RAID card enables blistering storage speeds – 80 GB/s throughput from eight SSDs with SupremeRAID™ SR-1001
By Alessandro Oliveira, January 27, 2024
On January 25, 2024, Graid Technology officially announced an entry-level version of its SupremeRAID GPU series to build a RAID array with the best SSDs. The new SupremeRAID SR-1001 is the entry-level version of the high-end SupremeRAID SR-1010. SupremeRAID features a unique RAID application controlled by GPU technology and the high performance gains that come with it, allowing server operators and other power users to get the most out of their multi-NVMe drive configurations.
While RAID is a mainstay in the PC space for multi-drive users, RAID has historically been somewhat problematic for SSD users as they are not always able to maximize their speeds when using RAID. This is especially true when using CPU-bound software RAID, as the reduced performance of the CPU often does not allow for the throughput of a traditional hardware RAID controller.
Graid Technology's solution to the problems with software RAID and traditional hardware RAID controllers is to address the problem with GPU hardware. GPUs are notoriously good tools when you can use them for non-graphics problems, and if Graid's benchmarking holds up, they've managed to utilize it.
SupremeRAID Storage GPU Performance vs Hardware/Software RAID
4K random read/write (IOPS)1 million sequential read/write (GB/s)Transfer rate (GB/s)Maximum supported SSDsSupremoRAID SR-10016M/600K80/30808SupremoRAID SR-100016M/820K220/922032SupremoRAID SR-101028M/2M260/10026032Hardware RAID3.9M/108K13.5/413.58Software RAID2M/200K9/2932
Compared to its higher-end cousins, the latest SupremeRAID-1001 card is aimed squarely at prosumers, performance enthusiasts, and home server users. With support for just eight SSDs but a maximum transfer rate of up to 80 GB/s, the SupremeRAID-1001 should provide enough headroom for some modern NVMe Gen 3, 4, or 5 SSDs.
Of course, suitable server or data center operators should probably be looking at next-generation SupremeRAID solutions. Both support 32 SSDs, but if you're taking advantage of that capacity or using a lot of NVMe Gen 4/5 drives, you'll almost certainly want to opt for the higher-end SupremeRAID SR-1010 to minimize any potential performance loss.
For most users, though, it seems like the SupremeRAID-1001 will be the best solution – as long as the price is right. For pricing inquiries, contact TD SYNNEX: levelup.tdsynnex.com/sponsors/graidtechnology
