Performance II
This is the most illuminating test. We precondition each drive using SNIA-approved methodology that requires writing to the entire capacity twice over using 128KB sequential transfers. We then run a mixed random 4K workload - 50 per cent, 50 per cent write - for 12 hours directly after the preconditioning.
What's clear here is that the Intel SSD 905P is able to mete out much higher IOPS, to the tune of 8x, over the WD, whose performance is a little more inconsistent than the graph shows. The Intel drive, on the other hand, varies long-term performance by less than two per cent, going by the logs, and it's this extreme corner-case test that highlights the difference between effectively enterprise- and consumer-class SSDs.
Would a regular consumer be tasking their SSD with this kind of post-conditioning workload? Most likely not, but it's good to know that Optane has the performance chops to handle solid workloads over a decent amount of time.
Switching gears completely into a benchmark more familiar to the regular enthusiast, PCMark 8's storage test finds in slight favour of Optane.
Bandwidth, on the other hand, is far, far more impressive.
