Random Performance – Iometer (IOPS/latency), YAPT (random)

We are trying something different here. Folks tend to not like to click through pages and pages of benchmarks, so I'm going to weed out those that show little to no delta across different units (PCMark). I'm also going to group results performance trait tested. Here are the random access results:

Iometer:

Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. It was originally developed by the Intel Corporation and announced at the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) on February 17, 1998 – since then it got wide spread within the industry. Intel later discontinued work on Iometer and passed it onto the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). In November 2001, code was dropped on SourceForge.net. Since the relaunch in February 2003, the project is driven by an international group of individuals who are continuesly improving, porting and extend the product.

Iometer – IOPS

iometer-ios-file.png

iometer-ios-web.png

In the file and web server tests we see all capacities and form factors of the 850 EVO outperforming the MX100 and SSD 730.

iometer-ios-database.png

Once we hit the database test, the 500GB capacities see their TurboWrite buffer fill at the QD=64 point. What is not as clear is that the buffer on the 120GB capacity is full at the start of this same test, resulting in the lower performance charted there.

iometer-ios-workstation.png

With caches full, the lower performance of the 120GB and 500GB models remains through the workstation test, while the 500GB stays on par with competing MLC units. What is surprising is how well the 1TB EVO sticks with the 850 Pro. With its 12GB of cache, it is likely still writing to SLC at this point in the sequence, and this chart demonstrates how the EVO can hang in there with the Pro model (when its caching is at play).

Iometer – Average Transaction Time

For SSD reviews, HDD results are removed here as they throw the scale too far to tell any meaningful difference in the results. Queue depth has been reduced to 8 to further clarify the results (especially as typical consumer workloads rarely exceed QD=8). Some notes for interpreting results:

  • Times measured at QD=1 can double as a value of seek time (in HDD terms, that is).
  • A 'flatter' line means that drive will scale better and ramp up its IOPS when hit with multiple requests simultaneously, especially if that line falls lower than competing units.

iometer-trans-file.png

iometer-trans-web.png

iometer-trans-database.png

iometer-trans-workstation.png

YAPT (random)

YAPT (yet another performance test) is a benchmark recommended by a pair of drive manufacturers and was incredibly difficult to locate as it hasn't been updated or used in quite some time.  That doesn't make it irrelevant by any means though, as the benchmark is quite useful.  It creates a test file of about 100 MB in size and runs both random and sequential read and write tests with it while changing the data I/O size in the process.  The misaligned nature of this test exposes the read-modify-write performance of SSDs and Advanced Format HDDs.

yapt-randreads.png

yapt-randwrites.png

This test has no regard for 4k alignment, and it brings many SSDs to their knees rather quickly, but with a relatively small total workload, the 850 EVOs are able to keep all of it cached and remain at or near full speed regardless of capacity.

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