PCMark 8 Advanced Workload Performance
Futuremark created what we consider to be the best SSD benchmark to date. It shows both heavy and light use over time. The advanced storage tests run from a command line interface, conditioning the drives before simulating heavy workloads. After those finish, five-minute intervals are inserted between each test, allowing the products we're reviewing to recover through garbage collection, TRIM and wear leveling. This simulates typical consumer workloads that we experience every day.
To learn how we test advanced workload performance, please click here.
Throughput Tests
Enthusiasts looking to do more than just surf the Internet and play games need to expect different performance levels based on previous tasks. SSDs slow down after heavy use. Then, garbage collection and operating system's TRIM command help the SSD recover over time. Ripping a large movie or shuffling your MP3 collection around can affect your next task. The lighter the load, the less you notice. But we often hear from readers wondering why their SSD isn't as fast as it once was. The amount of data stored on the drive also impacts performance because the wear-leveling algorithms have fewer fresh pages to work with.
Surprisingly, under heavy workloads, Patriot's Ignite lands in the chart's middle with acceptable performance.
Without the aid of an SLC cache layer, the Ignite's normal consumer workload performance doesn't recover as well as some of its competition.
Service Times
Latency is a better metric to evaluate with because it's a direct link to user experience.
Although it's nowhere near as consistent as the class-leading SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB, Patriot's Ignite 480GB delivers low latency under heavy workloads compared to many other drives.
Again, the lack of SLC cache programming hurts Patriot in the workloads most of us encounter daily. We are splitting hairs, but some of the drives that perform just as well or better are in the same price range.