Random Read/Write Speed

The four corners of SSD performance are as follows: random read, random write, sequential read and sequential write speed. Random accesses are generally small in size, while sequential accesses tend to be larger and thus we have the four Iometer tests we use in all of our reviews.

Our first test writes 4KB in a completely random pattern over an 8GB space of the drive to simulate the sort of random access that you'd see on an OS drive (even this is more stressful than a normal desktop user would see). I perform three concurrent IOs and run the test for 3 minutes. The results reported are in average MB/s over the entire time. We use both standard pseudo randomly generated data for each write as well as fully random data to show you both the maximum and minimum performance offered by SandForce based drives in these tests. The average performance of SF drives will likely be somewhere in between the two values for each drive you see in the graphs. For an understanding of why this matters, read our original SandForce article.

Desktop Iometer - 4KB Random Read (4K Aligned)

Random read performance remains untouched with the move to 128GB, although random write performance is cut in half compared to the 512GB version:

Desktop Iometer - 4KB Random Write (4K Aligned) - 8GB LBA Space

Many of you have asked for random write performance at higher queue depths. What I have below is our 4KB random write test performed at a queue depth of 32 instead of 3. While the vast majority of desktop usage models experience queue depths of 0 - 5, higher depths are possible in heavy I/O (and multi-user) workloads:

Desktop Iometer - 4KB Random Write (8GB LBA Space QD=32)

Sequential Read/Write Speed

To measure sequential performance I ran a 1 minute long 128KB sequential test over the entire span of the drive at a queue depth of 1. The results reported are in average MB/s over the entire test length.

Desktop Iometer - 128KB Sequential Read (4K Aligned)

Sequential read performance is once again untouched compared to the larger capacity Octane, while sequential write performance is seriously impacted:

Desktop Iometer - 128KB Sequential Write (4K Aligned)

An SSD State of the Union Update AS-SSD Incompressible Sequential Performance
Comments Locked

38 Comments

View All Comments

  • daos - Thursday, December 29, 2011 - link

    I recently purchased this drive from the egg and I love it. Very reliable and not one blue screen. This is coming straight from a Sandforce 2281 Corsair Force GT 60GB that would blue screen sitting idle. That drive drove me crazy. Ill never go back to another Sandforce. So far so good. Been running this drive for abourt a month now.
  • gamoniac - Thursday, December 29, 2011 - link

    Anand,
    Last October, you reviewed Kingston's SSDNow V+100 128GB (with Toshiba controller) and gave it a pretty high mark. It performed admirably under both light and heavy Anand Benchmark. A couple months back, the new SSDNow V200 is out, with JMicron controller and better specs than the V+100. I personally own two of each model but the benchmarks I have taken left me puzzled as to what to think about the newcomer. The random read/write department is great but the sequential read/write department is way bad, despite of the 6Gbps specs. I personally thinkg V+100 is way better and feel quite a bit ripped off by V200.

    There is no reviews out there for V200 yet and detail info is hard to find. Do you think you can shed some light on the latest from Kingston? Thanks much, and happy new year.
  • erple2 - Friday, December 30, 2011 - link

    Wasn't there a firmware update that was released for the M4's that substantially boosted speeds? I seem to remember that happening after the 256GB drive was released/reviewed.
  • erple2 - Friday, December 30, 2011 - link

    Meep. Nevermind. I just re-read the article you linked.
  • johnf1285 - Friday, December 30, 2011 - link

    So at what point can we expect to have this SSD turn into a brick just like every other OCZ SSD that I've ever owned?
  • chasM - Sunday, January 1, 2012 - link

    Sorry to say it, but all the prices from newegg,amazon, and Compusa are for a different drive. That model is more in the $170 range.
  • LoosCarl - Sunday, January 1, 2012 - link

    Get OCZ Octane SSDs from Amazon, if you missed it: http://cl.lk/21hkw07
  • binqq - Friday, January 6, 2012 - link

    Our Website: ===== www fashion-long-4biz com ====
    Our main product list is as follows:

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now