The Samsung 850 EVO 4TB SSD Review

Sequential Read Performance

The sequential read test requests 128kB blocks and tests queue depths ranging from 1 to 32. The queue depth is doubled every three minutes, for a total test duration of 18 minutes. The test spans the entire drive, and the drive is filled before the test begins. The primary score we report is an average of performances at queue depths 1, 2 and 4, as client usage typically consists mostly of low queue depth operations.

The 4TB 850 EVO scores slightly better than the 2TB for sequential reads, but it is still a hair slower than the fastest drives.

Samsung's large drives draw a lot of power during the sequential read test, but at least the 4TB 850 EVO improves over the 2TB and 1TB 850 EVOs.

Samsung 850 EVO 4TBSamsung 850 EVO 2TBSamsung 850 EVO 1TBSamsung 850 EVO 500GBSamsung 850 EVO 250GBSamsung 850 EVO 120GBSamsung 850 Pro 1TBSamsung 850 Pro 2TBCrucial MX200 1TBCrucial MX300 750GBOCZ Trion 150 960GBOCZ Vector 180 960GBSanDisk Extreme Pro 960GBSanDisk X400 1TB

The 4TB 850 EVO does not suffer from the modestly impaired QD1 performance of the 2TB model, but for the rest of the test the 4TB is slightly slower than the other two.

Sequential Write Performance

The sequential write test writes 128kB blocks and tests queue depths ranging from 1 to 32. The queue depth is doubled every three minutes, for a total test duration of 18 minutes. The test spans the entire drive, and the drive is filled before the test begins. The primary score we report is an average of performances at queue depths 1, 2 and 4, as client usage typically consists mostly of low queue depth operations.

The 4TB 850 EVO manages to just barely break the record of the 1TB 850 Pro for the fastest sequential write speeds at low queue depths.

With the fastest performance and the fourth-lowest power usage, the 4TB comes out on top for efficiency.

Samsung 850 EVO 4TBSamsung 850 EVO 2TBSamsung 850 EVO 1TBSamsung 850 EVO 500GBSamsung 850 EVO 250GBSamsung 850 EVO 120GBSamsung 850 Pro 1TBSamsung 850 Pro 2TBCrucial MX200 1TBCrucial MX300 750GBOCZ Trion 150 960GBOCZ Vector 180 960GBSanDisk Extreme Pro 960GBSanDisk X400 1TB

The 4TB 850 EVO shows substantially better QD1 performance and slightly better QD2 performance than the 2TB 850 EVO while having power consumption that is more in line with the 850 Pro.