128 KB And 2 MB Sequential Performance
128 KB Sequential
At a queue depth of one, Toshiba's SSD offers sequential read speeds just north of 200 MB/s, putting it on par with the SSD 320 and 710. As you scale up, however, the MK4001GRZB's performance peaks and plateaus at 510 MB/s. That's substantially better than Micron's P300, which is only able to reach a top speed of 450 MB/s.
In read-heavy enterprise workloads, Intel's SSD 520 looks like an attractive option. It's able to nearly match the much more expensive MK4001GRZB when there are more than eight outstanding I/O commands.
Although performance plateaus at a queue depth of two for all of our tested SSDs in this 128 KB sequential write test, there are substantial differences between the various models. Toshiba's MK4001GRZB falls just shy of 300 MB/s, while Micron's P300 pushes closer to 350 MB/s.
Interestingly, the SandForce-based SSD 520 hits speeds just over 500 MB/s when it's presented with compressible data. At the other end of the spectrum, when you hammer it with incompressible information, the SSD 520 barely outperforms the SATA 3Gb/s-capable SSD 320 and 710.
Moving to a larger block size makes the effect of queue depth less important. Using 2 MB transfers, Intel's SSD 520 leads the pack with a sequential write speed close to 550 MB/s (so long as you're working with compressible data, that is). The MK4001GRZB falls right behind at 520 MB/s, which roughly matches the performance of the SSD 520 as it operates on incompressible data.
Although Toshiba's offering doesn't top this chart, it still outperforms the Micron P300, which plateaus at sequential read speeds of 450 MB/s.
Sequential 2 MB writes look a lot like the 128 KB chart without the impact of queue depth weighing on performance. The SandForce-based SSD 520 still reigns king when it comes to compressible data, though switching to incompressible information knocks Intel's newest desktop drive closer to the bottom of the chart.
Amongst the more purpose-built enterprise SSDs, Micron's P300 delivers the best performance at 350 MB/s. In comparison, Toshiba's MK4001GRZB falls a ways behind with speeds just shy of 300 MB/s.
