Previewing Silicon Motion SM2260 NVMe Controller With 3D MLC NAND (512GB)
by Billy Tallis on February 17, 2017 9:00 AM ESTMixed Random Read/Write Performance
The mixed random I/O benchmark starts with a pure read test and gradually increases the proportion of writes, finishing with pure writes. The queue depth is 3 for the entire test and each subtest lasts for 3 minutes, for a total test duration of 18 minutes. As with the pure random write test, this test is restricted to a 16GB span of the drive, which is empty save for the 16GB test file.
The SM2260 sample scores in the lower tier of NVMe SSDs for mixed random I/O, but this is still much faster than SATA SSDs. The Patriot Hellfire and OCZ RD400 have a bit of an edge, and the Plextor M8Pe is very slightly faster.
The SM2260 sample has the highest power consumption among M.2 or SATA SSDs, so it's less efficient than all of its competition.
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The SM2260 sample's performance gradually increases as the portion of writes grows. Power consumption jumps substantially in the final phase of pure writes, but the performance increase is disappointing.
Mixed Sequential Read/Write Performance
The mixed sequential access test covers the entire span of the drive and uses a queue depth of one. It starts with a pure read test and gradually increases the proportion of writes, finishing with pure writes. Each subtest lasts for 3 minutes, for a total test duration of 18 minutes. The drive is filled before the test starts.
The mixed sequential I/O performance of the SM2260 sample is a little bit slower than the next slowest MLC-based NVMe SSD and a little bit faster than the best SATA SSD.
The SM2260 sample's power consumption is a little high by NVMe standards but it isn't setting a record. The efficiency is sub-par due to the low performance.
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Performance from the SM2260 sample wobbles a little over the course of the mixed sequential I/O test but is mostly steady. Most drives perform substantially better at either end of the test when the workload is predominantly reads or writes, but the SM2260 does manage to maintain a slightly better minimum than the Patriot Hellfire's worst.
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motigez - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
Honestly, at this point, TLC is the only viable technology for Client market, the incremental performance benefit you may get on MLC based SSD just don't worth it, and I expect to see little to no traction on those moving forward.LordanSS - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
To be very honest, a 3D MLC at 40nm has very good endurance, which would be good for a usage of heavy writes.If you're dealing with video capture and editing, it'd be a good choice over 3D TLC, even tho 3D TLC at 40nm has decent endurance as well.
leexgx - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
to bad they did not continue the BX100 line as it had insane low power use (still fast enough for a low end SSD) BX200 and higher was like the worst SSD for low end SSD and power useRanger1065 - Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - link
Does anyone really care about this? The number of comments seems to indicate a comprehensive "NO." Another article, another step towards oblivion. Great job Anandtech.BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - link
I see you're back to once again try to decry the site. It's funny if things are so bad that you keep coming back to read articles, but that's a special sort of problem, I suppose. Anyway, since you're having trouble with reading comprehension, most of the comments swirl around the drive's poor performance relative to other products. Just because someone doesn't leap to their feet to applaud a device that landed at the bottom of a chart doesn't mean the reviewer, the article, or the company publishing it is doing something wrong by reporting their test results. Just because people are generally in agreement with the results via their comments certainly doesn't indicate there's a problem with the review. You're just trying to project your silly opinion on others and hope to bend reality to your will by getting prophetic about the future...or you're trolling...probably both.BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - link
I see you're back to once again try to decry the site. It's funny if things are so bad that you keep coming back to read articles, but that's a special sort of problem, I suppose. Anyway, since you're having trouble with reading comprehension, most of the comments swirl around the drive's poor performance relative to other products. Just because someone doesn't leap to their feet to applaud a device that landed at the bottom of a chart doesn't mean the reviewer, the article, or the company publishing it is doing something wrong by reporting their test results. Just because people are generally in agreement with the results via their comments certainly doesn't indicate there's a problem with the review. You're just trying to project your silly opinion on others and hope to bend reality to your will by getting prophetic about the future...or you're trolling...probably both.watzupken - Saturday, February 25, 2017 - link
So far, the Silicon Motion and Phison's controllers always seem to perform poorly with consistency. They don't seem like they are trying to fix it with each iteration of their controller.