Intel SSD 750 PCIe SSD Review: NVMe for the Client
by Kristian Vättö on April 2, 2015 12:00 PM ESTSequential Read Performance
Our sequential tests are conducted in the same manner as our random IO tests. Each queue depth is tested for three minutes without any idle time in between the tests and the IOs are 4K aligned similar to what you would experience in a typical desktop OS.
In sequential read performance the SM951 keeps its lead. While the SSD 750 reaches up to 2.75GB/s at high queue depths, the scaling at small queue depths is very poor. I think this is an area where Intel should have put in a little more effort because it would translate to better performance in more typical workloads.
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Sequential Write Performance
Sequential write testing differs from random testing in the sense that the LBA span is not limited. That's because sequential IOs don't fragment the drive, so the performance will be at its peak regardless.
The SSD 750 is faster in sequential writes than the SM951, but the difference isn't all that big when you take into account that the SSD 750 has more than twice the amount of NAND. The SM951 did have some throttling issues as you can see in the graph below and I bet that with a heatsink and proper cooling the two would be quite identical because at queue depth of 1 the SSD 750 is only marginally faster. It's again a bit disappointing that the SSD 750 isn't that well optimized for sequential IO because there's prcatically no scaling at all and the drive maxes out at ~1350MB/s.
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KAlmquist - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
It's too bad that Anandtech didn't benchmark the 400 GB model, since that's the one most people are going to be most interested in buying. I assume that it's a case of Intel not making the 400 GB model available for review, rather than Anandtech deciding not to review it.jwilliams4200 - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
Agreed, the 400 GB model is more interesting to consumers.Also, I hope that if Anandtech does test the 400GB model, that they re-run the tests of the comparison SSDs so that the competitors are overprovisioned to 400GB usable capacity (from 512GB or whatever nominal capacity). That is the only reasonable way to compare, since anyone who wants high sustained performance and is willing to try a drive with only 400GB to achieve it would obviously be willing to overprovision, for example, a 512GB Samsung 850 Pro to only 400GB usable to achieve higher sustained performance.
Kristian Vättö - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
That is something that I've had on my mind for a while now and I even have a way to do it now (the Storage Bench traces are a bit tricky since they are run on a raw drive, but thankfully I found an hdparm command for limiting the far LBA count). The only issue is time because it takes roughly two days to test one drive through the 2015 suite, so I may be include a drive or two as comparison points but I definitely can't test all drives with added OP.Kristian Vättö - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
Not far LBA count, but raw LBA count, obviously :)Stahn Aileron - Friday, April 3, 2015 - link
Honestly, I'd rather have AnandTech test drives and components as-is ("stock" from the manufacturer) and publish those results rather than spend time doing tests on non-standard, customized configurations. Let the customers do that if they truly need that type of set-up or leave it to integrators/specialists.As far as I know, most customers of a product just want to use it immediately right of the box, no mucking with special settings. Most products are advertised that way as well.
Really, just test the product(s) as advertised/intended by the manufacturer first and foremost to see if it matches their claims and properly serves the target userbase. Specialty cases should only be done if that is actively advertised as a feature, there is truly high interest, something makes you curious, and/or you have the time.
jwilliams4200 - Friday, April 3, 2015 - link
If this were a review site for the totally clueless, then you might have a point. But anandtech has always catered to enthusiasts and those who either already know a lot about how computer equipment works, or who want to learn.The target audience for this site would certainly consider something as simple as overprovisioning an SSD if it could significantly increase performance and/or achieve similar performance at lower cost relative to another product. So it makes sense to test SSDs configured for similar capacity or performance rather than just "stock" configuration. Anyone can take an SSD and run a few benchmarks. It takes a site as good as anandtech to go more in-depth and consider how SSDs are actually likely to be used and then present useful tests to its readers.
Kristian Vättö - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
That is correct. I always ask for all capacities, but in this case Intel decided to sample all media with only 1.2TB samples. I've asked for a 400GB, though, and will review it as soon as I get it.Mr Alpha - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
Has anyone managed to find this mythological list of compatible motherboards?Kristian Vättö - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
I just asked Intel and will provide a link as soon as I get one. Looks like it's not up yet as they didn't have an answer right away.tstones - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
Older chipsets like z77 and z87 will support NVMe?