Real-World Software Performance
PCMark 8 Real-World Software Performance
For details on our real-world software performance testing, please click here.
All of the products perform very well in the standard consumer applications that most of us run daily. The NVMe-enabled drives show a clear and consistent lead over the AHCI-based Kingston HyperX Predator 480 GB SSD. All of the drives deliver higher performance in comparison to SATA-based flash storage products.
Total Application Storage Bandwidth
The drives in the test pool are premium SSDs and command a higher price than SATA SSDs. In exchange, users receive exceptional performance beyond what SATA SSDs are capable of achieving in many applications.
The OCZ RD400 SSDs fall below the Samsung 950 Pro products with average results displayed in throughput. OCZ has a capacity advantage with the 1 TB model, but the two smaller capacity sizes will need a significant price advantage to entice users to choose the RD400 over the 950 Pro.
PCMark 8 Advanced Workload Performance
To learn how we test advanced workload performance, please click here.
The OCZ RD400 SSDs perform very well under steady-state and recovery conditions, but still lag behind the Samsung 950 Pro 512 GB and Intel SSD 750. The difference in performance during the recovery phases is trivial (at best) for the two smaller RD400 products in comparison to the 950 Pro 512 GB and Intel SSDs. The RD400 1 TB SSD keeps pace with the other SSDs in the recovery phase. It would be difficult to tell those four products apart under moderate to slightly heavy workloads in a consumer or workstation environment.
Total Access Time
We often find that access times (latency) and throughput performance are the inverse of each other. The access time tests allow us to take a closer look at the latency because we are measuring on a smaller scale.
The two Intel SSD 750 SSDs deliver the best application access time of any consumer SSD on the market today. The other SSDs on the chart follow closely behind and deliver superior performance in comparison to SATA-based products.
Notebook Battery Life
Lenovo was kind enough to send us new notebooks for our Notebook Battery Life test. The Lenovo Ideapad Y700-17 can boot from both SATA and PCIe NVMe SSDs, which is a unique and unmatched feature in the industry at this time. The dual-bootability makes it the ideal platform for comparing nearly all SSDs on a singular platform.
We also updated our test while migrating to the new notebook platform. MobileMark 2014 version 1.5 is the latest version from BAPco. Unlike other benchmarks that only measure battery life, MobileMark measures battery life and performance simultaneously. Our test also migrates from Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10.
The Samsung 950 Pro SSDs provide longer battery life than the OCZ RD400 SSDs. The two smaller OCZ drives deliver slightly higher performance under power-restricted notebook conditions. Other factors come into play at the same time, such as limited processor, system memory and bus bandwidth.
MobileMark 2014 adds more detail to the overall system performance portion of the results than the previous version. We are still sorting through the performance measurements to determine how much differentiation exists between small changes in the score. We will know more after running more drives though the test. We also plan to implement other power measurements in the future. Look for an article detailing the new power tests in the coming month.