OCZ Vertex 3 Pro Preview: The First SF-2500 SSD
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 17, 2011 3:01 AM ESTPerformance vs. Transfer Size
All of our Iometer sequential tests happen at a queue depth of 1, which is indicative of a light desktop workload. It isn't too far fetched to see much higher queue depths on the desktop. The performance of these SSDs also greatly varies based on the size of the transfer. For this next test we turn to ATTO and run a sequential write over a 2GB span of LBAs at a queue depth of 4 and varying the size of the transfers.
On a 6Gbps SATA port the Vertex 3 Pro is unstoppable. For transfer sizes below 16KB it's actually a bit average, and definitely slower than the RealSSD C300. But once you hit 16KB and above, the performance is earth shattering. The gap at 128KB isn't even as big as it gets, we don't see leveling off of performance until 2048KB transfers.
The 3Gbps performance is pretty unimpressive. In fact, the Vertex 3 Pro actually comes in a bit slower than the SF-1200 based Corsair Force F120. If you're going to get the most out of this drive you had better have a good 6Gbps controller.
ATTO's writes are fully compressible, indicative of the sort of performance you'd get on applications/libraries/user data and not highly compressed multimedia files. Here the advantage is just hilarious. By the 8KB mark the Vertex 3 Pro is already faster than everything else, but by 128KB the gap is more of a chasm separating the 6Gbps Vertex 3 Pro from its competitors.
Over a 3Gbps interface the Vertex 3 Pro once again does well but still doesn't really differentiate itself from the SF-1200 based Force F120. Real world performance is probably a bit higher as most transfers aren't perfectly compressible, but again if you don't have a good 6Gbps interface (think Intel 6-series or AMD 8-series) then you probably should wait and upgrade your motherboard first.
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Chloiber - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
It's correct, Anand answered the exact same question already on page 1/2 of the comments.7Enigma - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Yup, saw that on my second read through. A little clarification in the article would have made it a bit more explainable but at least the numbers are right.teldar - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Hope this gets seen.I used to go to a site frequently for info on drive reliability.
storagereview.com
I don't believe its really being updated anymore. I would love to side you be able to integrate a site like theirs (or theirs completely) into here.
argosreality - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
They've been updating the site for the last six months or so with new reviews. Actually, they just reviewed the new Vertex2 drives with 25nm flashtomoyo - Friday, February 18, 2011 - link
Ya storagereview is quite alive now. They were dead for over a year, but I'm glad to have another good source of hdd/ssd info again.KenPC - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
OCZ needs a distraction - NOWSo serve up a prototype (even without a case yet) drive and get fabulous bench results and lots of press to drown out the behind the scenes downgrading of many of the on-market products.
Yes, this new controller/architecture for this particular prototype is faster. Yes, it appears to be very promising technology in the SSD space.
But now folks will be using THIS prototype review to measure the purchase decisions for drives sold months from now that may/may not have the same performance
MeSh1 - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Wow, thats some tasty hardware :). 400GB @ $1350. The Revo X22 480GB is just under that, hmm..... decisions. Revo Drive uses SF1200 I wonder if they can slap a SF200 on the Revo :)Breit - Friday, February 18, 2011 - link
you can bet on that. ocz will definitely roll out a new revodrive with sf2000 on it when the time comes, trust me. :)geniekid - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Don't know if anyone from AT will get this far in the comments, but...1) I like how the beginning of the article rehashes how SSDs work instead of linking back to earlier articles. The redundancy makes it a lot easier to read the article.
2) I think the real world usage of these things is invaluable. Theoretical limits almost never ever mirror real world usage. *Thumbs up*
TrackSmart - Friday, February 18, 2011 - link
I agree completely on the REAL WORLD tests. Looking at the PCMark Vantage scores, it's clear that the incredible speeds of the Vertex 3 will only yield marginal gains in *total system performance* compared to the current crop of SSDs (Agility 2, Vertex 2, etc). Hopefully the price of the new drives will be similar to the old ones. Or lower, forcing even more affordable pricing on the existing, fast-enough models.