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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romrunning - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
You would have thought their design performance target would have been the older 950 Pro (not the newer 960 line) or the even-older Intel 750 . But no, it seems they are competing with Phison for the lowest-performing NVMe SSD award. Disappointing - just like that Intel 600p.ddriver - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
First look: slow. Second look: still slow. It is quite the feat they manage to make an nvme controller almost as slow as sata.jjj - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Guess it's a sub 200$ drive, we'll see how it does against WD's offering and Plextor M8Se.Not worth wasting the M.2 slot on such a drive, unless it's well bellow 200$. Right now on Newegg, the M8Pe without a shield is 220$.
kissiel - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Isn't the Z97Pro bottlenecking the drive?AFAIK it's pcie2.0 x 2 - > so sub 1GiB/s tops.
revanchrist - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
True that. It's a 10Gbps M.2 rather than the newer 32Gbps M.2 slot.fanofanand - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Nice catch! Strange for one of the top tech sites in the world to use old tech to test new tech. Very strange indeed. Ryan? Can you squeeze Purch to get some current equipment into your reviewer's hands?DanNeely - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
I don't think so. The last page of the article shows the card in a x4 PCIe adapter. AFAIK that's plugged into 3.0 lanes from the CPU both for performance testing and to monitor the power draw.Billy Tallis - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Exactly right. All PCIe SSDs are tested in the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with a riser card that has the power measurement points on it. Although, I did also test the Intel 600p in the motherboard's M.2 slot to see how much the slowest NVMe drive would be affected.kissiel - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
Thanks!Please consider pointing that out in a test bed info next time, so people will know what to expect with a similar combo (z97+m.2).
Keep up, the good work!
TelstarTOS - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Another piece of crap. This controller should be trashed away.