Sequential Read Performance

For full details of how we conduct our Iometer tests, please refer to this article.

Iometer - 128KB Sequential Read

Most modern SATA drives have more or less the same sequential read performance and the 2TB Pro and EVO are no exceptions. Samsung drives do consume quite a bit of power under sequential read operations, but fortunately the 2TB EVO shows efficiency gains over the 1TB model.

Iometer - 128KB Sequential Read (Power)

Samsung 850 Pro 2TB

Nothing special in the scaling graphs -- both the Pro and EVO reach their maximum at QD2.

Sequential Write Performance

Iometer - 128KB Sequential Write

Once again, the performance of 2TB models is equal to 1TB with the EVO having increased power efficiency.

Iometer - 128KB Sequential Write (Power)

Queue depth scaling is, unsurprisingly, similar to the smaller capacities.

Samsung 850 Pro 2TB
Random Performance Mixed Read/Write Performance
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  • Kristian Vättö - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    The move to Windows 8 broke compatibility with that method since HD Tach no longer works. I do have another idea, though, but I just haven't had the time to try it out and implement it to our test suite.
  • editorsorgtfo - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    Kristian, what would you consider the best SATA 6Gbps drive(s) with power-loss protection?
  • editorsorgtfo - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    Judging from the 850 Pro and EVO PCBs, they don't even guard their NAND mappings. Or my eyesight is giving.
  • Meegul - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    It's mentioned at the end of 'The Destroyer' test that the 2TB 850 Pro uses less power than the 512GB variant, with one reason being cited as possibly a more efficient process node for the controller. Wouldn't it be more likely that the move to LPDDR3 in the 2TB variant was the cause for the increase in efficiency?
  • MikhailT - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    He said that on the final words page as well: "I'm very glad to see improved power efficiency in the 2TB models. A part of that is explained by the move from LPDDR2 to LPDDR3, but it's also possible that the MHX is manufactured using a more power efficient process node. "
  • MrCommunistGen - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    Kristian, I like that you give a little bit of love to the Mixed Sequential Read/Write graphs.

    Honestly this is the 1 area that I still find myself tearing out my hair waiting for on my Mid 2014 rMBP 1TB. I do a lot of work with large VMs in VMware and from time to time I have to copy one.

    Peak read and Peak write speeds on this SSD are quite good, often approaching 1GB/s, but mixed sequential read/write is capped to an aggregate total of 1GB/s (yes I realize that this is bus limited on a x2 PCI-E 2.0 SSD).

    This is one area that I really look forward to seeing improvements in with x4 PCI-E 3.0 SSDs.
  • jas.brooks - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link

    Hey MrCommunistGen,

    Just wondered if you could shed some light onto the Mixed Sequential Read/Write significance for you. I'm not super-tecchy personally, so it doesn't mean very much to me in those words alone.

    BUT, I have been experiencing some very frustrating behaviour on my rMBP late-2013 (with 1TB built in SS-storage). When I'm using Premiere Pro CC2015 with video projects over a certain size (I'm a pro cameraman and editor, so am using heavy XAVC-I video from a Sony FS-7), then I get crazy lags waiting for a sequence to open, or specifically when making copy&paste commands. I have noticed that my (16GB) RAM is often near full in these situations, and there is a swap file in action too (between 1-16GB).

    Any thoughts on my problem? More specifically, any possible ideas/suggestions of a config adjustment that could improve my experience? Or, is it simply the case that I'm pushing my machine too hard, and need to get a 32GB-RAM-cabable laptop ASAP?

    Thanks!

    jason
  • jcompagner - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link

    So they now have a way larger package/die for the pro version?
    Because with the 1TB evo and 1TB Pro i got the picture
    both are exactly the same hardware only the evo stored 3 in 1 cell and the pro 2

    (128GBit / 3 * 2 = 86GBit pro)

    But now they both have 128GBit for the evo this i guess just means more of the same stuff
    But for the Pro this has to mean that it has way more cells 50% more. So the die of the 2TB has to be 50% bigger then a one of the 1TB right?
  • Kristian Vättö - Saturday, July 25, 2015 - link

    The 86Gbit MLC and 128Gbit TLC dies are not identical -- the TLC die is actually smaller (68.9mm^2 vs 87.4mm^2) due to it being a single-plane design. A lot more than the number of memory transistors goes into the die size, so estimating the die size based on the 50% increase in memory capacity alone isn't really possible.
  • karakarga - Friday, July 24, 2015 - link

    Why the read and write speeds not increasing? 550~540 Mb/s read and 520 MB/s write speeds, may reach 600 MB's there are still headroom!

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