Samsung SM951-NVMe (256GB) PCIe SSD Review
by Kristian Vättö on June 25, 2015 9:40 AM ESTMixed Random Read/Write Performance
For full details of how we conduct our Iometer tests, please refer to this article.
In mixed performance the SM951 NVMe presents a good boost to performance over the AHCI version, although it still can't even get close to the SSD 750. This is generally an area where I would like to see improvement from Samsung and basically every SSD OEM.
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Mixed Sequential Read/Write Performance
Unfortunately the good mixed random performance doesn't translate to mixed sequential performance. The SM951 NVMe takes a quite considerable hit compared to the AHCI version, although it still offers better performance than any of the SATA 6Gbps drives on the market.
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The reason lies in the fact that performance only drops as the share of writes is increased. I suspect there might be some throttling going on, or if not then the firmware isn't properly optimized because other Samsung drives have a nice "bathtub" curve.
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CrazyElf - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
@Kristian VättöDoes Windows 10 have better drivers for NVMe SSDs?
It is looking like right now that the SSD 750 might turn out to be the equal of the X-25 SSD in someday popularizing NVMe SSDs.
That being said, for the end consumer I'm not sure it matters as much over a SATA SSD. After all, the typical average user probably values the 4k @QD1/2 above all else, so perhaps these PCI-E SSDs will remain a niche product, unless the price reaches near parity with SATA SSDs, which won't happen for at least a few years.
The big advantage these PCI-E SSDs have is mostly sequential and for write-intensive work.
dgingeri - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
Windows 10 is still in development. They're still trying to improve things before the release day. I'm running the 10130 build, and it has many issues. I don't think it would be wise to do any benchmarks under the current Win10 build, and may not be good even under what gets released.hans_ober - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
Forget performance/benchmarks, even the UI is unstable. Window manager hangs, quits app. Many issues.Flunk - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
Try installing the production gpu drivers. The Beta ones that are automatically installed are quite crashy because they're still working on Direct X 12 support..Gigaplex - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
That doesn't apply in my case as I'm using a laptop with Intel graphics that aren't capable of DX12.nathanddrews - Friday, June 26, 2015 - link
Not sure which Intel graphics you have, but I was successful just installing the current 7/8.1 64bit drivers.AlenChakarov - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
Huh? Windows 10 has been rock-hard stable for me for quite a while now. Considering it's shipping a month from now, that's how it should be. Is your statement up-to-date?Gigaplex - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
I'm running the latest build, and I get a highly visible explorer crash every time I shut down or restart.Notmyusualid - Sunday, June 28, 2015 - link
BS.It is full of holes.
If there is one thing I've learned about software, if Microsoft say Beta, they really do mean it...
kmmatney - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
Yeah - I'm running the insider preview, and I'm a bit surprised at how rough things still are. It's stable - it just that a lot of thing don't work smoothly - especially with the App store and Modern Apps. My statement is up to date.