Performance Consistency
The Intel DC S3700 is the first enterprise drive to pass through the HEXUS labs in quite some time, allowing us to start afresh with a clean slate. All of today's benchmarks were carried out on an Intel Ivy Bridge test platform, and for a point of reference we've included numbers for a high-capacity 960GB Crucial M500 that's readily available for under £500, as well as a popular previous-generation 256GB Samsung 830 Series drive that retailed for under £150.
Intel DC S3700 (800GB) |
Crucial M500 (960GB) |
Samsung 830 Series (256GB) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATTO Benchmark | 1MB Read | 490 MB/s |
540 MB/s |
547 MB/s |
| 1MB Write | 486 MB/s |
439 MB/s |
410 MB/s |
|
| Crystal Disk Mark | 4K QD32 Read | 306 MB/s |
342 MB/s |
300 MB/s |
| 4K QD32 Write | 245 MB/s |
344 MB/s |
152 MB/s |
|
| AS SSD | Read Score | 370 Points |
406 Points |
359 Points |
| Write Score | 327 Points |
404 Points |
204 Points |
|
| Iometer | 4K Random R/W | 65,210 IOPs |
61,443 IOPs |
44,529 IOPs |
| PCMark 7 | Importing Pictures | 30.29 MB/s |
28.13 MB/s |
28.46 MB/s |
| Video Editing | 23.12 MB/s |
22.93 MB/s |
22.74 MB/s |
|
| Starting Apps | 60.94 MB/s |
51.59 MB/s |
56.05 MB/s |
|
| Overall Score | 5,445 Marks |
5,263 Marks |
5,271 Marks |
|
Examining various drive characteristics using conventional SSD benchmark utilities doesn't provide a great deal of insight. Indeed, benchmark any of the three drives in a factory-fresh state and what you see are solid performance numbers throughout.
To tell modern SSDs apart, we need to stress the drives over longer periods with more demanding workloads.
In the above graph, each SSD is subjected to random 4K writes across the entire span of the drive at a queue depth of 32 for a full 10 hours. Bombarding the drives in this manner forces each SSD to run out of the free blocks that initially allow fast write times. The sharp performance drop off is attributed to increased write amplification, as the drives are having to perform read-modify-writes for randomly written data going through garbage collection.
As we can see, the Intel DC S3700 tapes off to just under 40,000 IOPs, well in excess of the consumer drives.
Examining the average latency throughout the 10-hour 4K write provides a good look at the capabilities of each drive's garbage collection algorithms. As the drives run out of free blocks, the previous-generation Samsung 830 Series takes a large hit in terms of latency, and though the Crucial M500 is a vast improvement, the Intel DC S3700 is in a class of its own.
Taking a closer look at maximum latency shows us what's happening. The Samsung 830 Series is clearly struggling, with the drive occasionally taking up to 1,000ms to respond to a write transaction. These frequent 'hiccups' are less pronounced with the Crucial M500, but they still exist. Intel's DC S3700, however, delivers the promised level of predictability by drawing a line that's practically straight; there are no anomalies and the drive displays a remarkable consistency throughout the 10-hour run.
