Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD 1TB Review (Page 8 of 10)

Page 8 - Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10

About PassMark PerformanceTest 10

This Advanced Disk Test, which is part of PerformanceTest, measures the data transfer speed when reading or writing data to one or more disks. The speed that data can be transferred between memory and a hard disk drive is one of a system's most important performance aspects. There are quite a few factors which have a bearing on this speed and the Advanced Disk Drive Test allows the user to vary most of these factors and compare the results.

The test supports any drive that can be mounted under Windows. Including IDE drives, SCSI, RAID, USB key drives, SATA, networked shared drives and external drives.

Users have the ability to test multiple drives at the same time using multiple threads, and specify:

- The size of the test file used. Larger files mean that the system cache has less of an effect on the test types, which use caching (see below).
- The size of the data block used for each read or write request. Larger blocks mean less requests and can lead to an improvement in performance.
- The choice of four access methods - C/C++ API, Win32 API cached / uncached and raw disk access.
- Sequential or random access (seeking plus reading and writing)
- Synchronous and Asynchronous access
- The split between reading and writing

The results of all completed tests may be graphed using our custom graphing components.

From: Developer's Page




PassMark PerformanceTest 10's Advanced Disk Test, unlike HD Tune Pro 5.70, generates some awesome graphs right out of the box. It also provides valuable insight in simulating real world performance applications. To make things clear to you, the first graph simulates a database server, followed by a file server, web server, and workstation. Obviously, PassMark PerformanceTest 10 uses highly compressible data in most tests some controllers can really take advantage of. However, it also requires high IOPS capabilities for the best score. One thing clear is the Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD 1TB provided generally flat graphs, which is excellent if you are looking for consistent performance.

Overall, this PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive's performance was acceptable, but unremarkable, for a performance SSD. With results of 153.57MB/s, 1191MB/s, 1236MB/s, and 243.03MB/s, respectively, the WD_BLACK SN850 1TB consistently trailed its predecessor, the SN750 1TB, at 262.43MB/s, 1924MB/s, 2014MB/s, and 185.29MB/s, respectively. The Kingston KC2500 1TB came in at 215.52MB/s, 1261MB/s, 1607MB/s, and 201.03MB/s, respectively. The Seagate FireCuda 510 1TB posted results of 185.19MB/s, 1384MB/s, 1405MB/s, and 170.81MB/s, in the same corresponding order.

UPDATE March 17, 2022: The drive was retested with PerformanceTest 10.2 with improved results.




The updated results came in at 297.22MB/s, 2126MB/s, 2378MB/s, and 216.79MB/s, respectively, which is impressive. This is compared to the updated SN850 1TB results of 246.01MB/s, 1526MB/s, 2057MB/s, and 266.25MB/s, in the same order.


Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 8.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10
9. Benchmark: PCMark 10
10. Conclusion