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Four-Corner Performance Testing
The table below contains the comparison units for today's review:
To read about our storage tests in-depth, please check out How We Test HDDs And SSDs. Four-corner testing is covered on page six.
Sequential Read Performance
Our performance measurements at a queue depth of two are misleading. We saw higher performance from an isolated test, but our test script kept losing performance over a queue depth of one. Both tests ran after preconditioning. However, our automated script uses more of this than the isolated test. We stuck with the heavier conditioning number since that's what the other products on the chart were tested with as well.
Looking at sequential reads across queue depths, the Intel 750 Series 1.2TB meets Samsung's SM951 512GB at a queue depth of four and then walks away from its competition. Pay particular attention to the high sequential performance as queue depths increase. Intel specs the 750 Series at 2400 MB/s, and we measured nearly 2700 MB/s on an ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 motherboard.
You often hear that your mileage may vary when it comes to enthusiast-class components, and that's especially true here. Some PCIe 3.0 slots we tested only allowed 800 MB/s in our sequential read test. Supporting hardware, along with the slot you drop this SSD into, has an impact on performance.
To see just how fast we could clock the 750 Series 1.2TB, we ran a test with four workers at a queue depth of one (for a total of QD4). This benchmark doesn't represent a workload power users would encounter, but some workstations running professional software may tax the storage subsystem like this. We managed nearly 2200 MB/s with a sequential read workload, and the drive has more performance to give if you can push it to its limit.
Sequential Write Performance
Conditioning strikes again, though this time it affects Samsung's SM951 512GB. We often read comments from enthusiasts questioning SSD performance. The workload run before the test (in some cases even hours before) can change the performance story for long periods of time afterward.
Intel's specifications state that the 750 Series can deliver sequential writes up to 1200 MB/s. We measured write performance up to 1350 MB/s, and at a queue depth of two the drive delivered nearly 1300 MB/s. This test is run using a single worker, and higher performance is undoubtedly possible if you have the workload to achieve it.
Random Read Performance
Our client-based random read workload is not taxing enough to reach Intel's claimed 450,000 random read IOPS, but we're certain your workload won't push 440,000 IOPS either. We were able to reach Intel's claimed performance with a modified test, though that metric takes us into enterprise territory far removed from what most of us see on our desktops.
The Intel 750 Series 1.2TB SSD delivers more than 10,000 random read IOPS at a queue depth of one, and performance scales well as the workload intensifies. Once the drive is shouldering a queue depth of 16, there isn't another client-oriented product that can touch it.
Random Write Performance
The 750 Series 1.2 TB delivers exceptional random write performance at all queue depths. It's superior to every other client drive, going so far as to give enterprise-oriented SSDs something to worry about.
