The Samsung 960 Pro (2TB) SSD Review
by Billy Tallis on October 18, 2016 10:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - The Destroyer
The Destroyer is an extremely long test replicating the access patterns of very IO-intensive desktop usage. A detailed breakdown can be found in this article. Like real-world usage and unlike our Iometer tests, the drives do get the occasional break that allows for some background garbage collection and flushing caches, but those idle times are limited to 25ms so that it doesn't take all week to run the test.
We quantify performance on this test by reporting the drive's average data throughput, a few data points about its latency, and the total energy used by the drive over the course of the test.
The 2TB 960 Pro sets a new record with a higher average data rate than the 950 Pro, but the improvement isn't huge, especially given the large increase in capacity over the 512GB 950 Pro.
The 2TB 960 Pro reduces the average service time by almost 30% compared to the next fastest drive. SATA SSDs can't deliver average service times this low even on the ATSB Light test.
For the first time, a drive has completed The Destroyer without any operations taking more than 100ms. Though at a tighter standard of 10ms, the improvement from the 950 Pro is relatively small.
Essentially no power efficiency was sacrificed for the increased performance of the 960 Pro over its predecessors, though some SATA drives are more efficient.
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TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - link
Cant wait to see that, as it seems the 960 pro is thermally limited more often then not, especially on write tests. Hope to see even bigger improvements.eldakka - Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - link
But but but, since the controller is Polaris, doesn't the SSD handle your graphics too?I'll see myself out now.
BurntMyBacon - Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - link
@eldakkaNo. That would be Fiji. Though, I can see how it would be confusing. Even Ryan thought it was a Polaris 10 chip initially.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10518/amd-announces-...
Waiting for a Polaris update to the Radeon Pro SSG. Throw some 960s (Polaris controllers) in to replace the 950s and things will get really confusing. ;')
VeauX - Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - link
Would migrating from an old Sandforce base SSD to this provide the same WOW effect than from mechanical to SSDs back in the days?GTRagnarok - Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - link
No, unless what you're doing involves reading or writing many gigabytes of data at a time in which case it'll be noticeably faster. Otherwise, the experience will be very similar compared to old SATA SSDs.AnnonymousCoward - Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - link
I have an absolutely brilliant idea. AT could just test that, and you wouldn't have to wonder and ask in the comments section!Mr Perfect - Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - link
This is kind of a chicken-and-the-egg problem, but has Samsung said anything about releasing these as U.2? Quite a few new motherboards have U.2 ports now, and putting these drives in the larger 2.5 inch form factor would make it possible to solve the overheating issues with heatsinks.Gigaplex - Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - link
It wouldn't be hard for a 3rd party to create a 2.5" adaptor that incorporates a heatsink.Mr Perfect - Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - link
You wouldn't think so, but I had a hell of a time finding one. All said and done, only one manufacturer seems to make an adapter to turn a M.2 into a U.2. Some company called microsatacables.com http://www.microsatacables.com/u2-sff8639-to-m2-pc...Some more native U.2 drives would be nice.
sircod - Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - link
Are you guys doing a review of the 600p? Not quite the same class as the 960 Pro, but I definitely want to see the 960 Evo compared to the 600p.