Introduction The most interesting development that happened in the world of consumer SSDs in 2014 is without a doubt the introduction of Samsung's new flagship SSD, the 850 Pro. The fact is that over the past few years, all progress in this industry has been largely reduced to either transferring flash memory to production using finer technical processes, or increasing the density of data storage through packaging in one cell of not one, but two, and not two, but three, bits of information. It was these techniques that ensured the rapid decline in cost and the ubiquity of solid-state drives. However, this progressive development of the SSD market has recently begun to run into quite obvious obstacles. Further reduction of technical process standards is becoming more and more problematic and expensive, and three-bit TLC memory cannot yet be widely used due to manufacturing difficulties and its not too high resource.
It is clear that some fundamentally new ideas are needed to maintain the current pace in the consumer SSD market. And one of the most promising technologies that should allow further increase in storage density in flash memory without any unpleasant side effects, is three-dimensional memory - 3D NAND or V-NAND (from the word Vertical). The Samsung 850 Pro SSD is a pioneer in introducing this new memory into mass-market products. In fact, the idea of 3D NAND arose a long time ago, and all the leading manufacturers of flash memory have been actively developing in this direction over the past few years. But Samsung was the first to move from pilot products to using 3D NAND in mass-produced products with millions of copies. Its competitors will be able to present their drives based on their own three-dimensional flash memory, at best, in a year or two.
At the same time, the Samsung 850 Pro, converted to innovative 3D NAND, became the first SSD in the consumer market with truly outstanding reliability characteristics. The warranty period for it is set at 10 years, and the declared recording resource is 150 TB. Moreover, the last restriction has marketing roots and is connected with the manufacturer's desire to distinguish between user and server products. In fact, the Samsung 850 Pro is an almost eternal flash drive. According to company representatives, it should be fully functional even after recording tens of petabytes of data.
It all looks more than intriguing, so when we got our hands on a sample of the Samsung 850 Pro, we couldn't resist devoting a separate review to it.
Specifications
Before moving on to the story about the hardware platform underlying the Samsung 850 Pro, let's take a closer look at the features of three-dimensional memory. This is how an enlarged photo of a slice of a conventional planar flash memory looks like, where the data is stored in a conventional horizontal cell array:
And this is how it looks in the context of 3D NAND:
Data (in the form of charge held on the floating gate) is stored in more than just one plane. Here they are at every level, of which you can count two or three dozen vertically. And a more visual snapshot of a 3D NAND slice in isometry looks like this:
The essence of 3D NAND is that instead of increasing the density of information storage on a two-dimensional plane of a semiconductor crystal due to a decrease in the geometric dimensions of transistors, a vertical dimension is used. Memory cells are located in several layers, the number of which can reach several tens. Obviously, when using a three-dimensional layout, it is absolutely not necessary to introduce technological processes with “thin” standards, high data storage density is achieved due to multi-layering. Therefore, it is natural that Samsung decided to roll back to the 40-nm process technology, which guarantees a good yield of suitable chips and a high resource of the resulting flash memory even with such a complex structure.
Samsung's first-generation pilot 3D NAND has been on the market for more than a year. It included 24 layers of cells superimposed on each other and was used only in products for the server market. Nevertheless, Samsung received practical confirmation of the promise of 3D flash memory technology. Even in the storage-demanding server segment, first-generation 3D NAND has improved storage performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.
However, progress did not stand still, and this summer Samsung was able to start mass production of second-generation 3D NAND. There were two key changes. First, the number of layers has increased to 32, further increasing the density of 3D memory. Secondly, the capacity of semiconductor crystals has changed: if earlier the chips had a volume of 128 Gbit, now it has decreased to 86 Gbit. So Samsung further increased the yield of suitable crystals, which made it possible to introduce them into relatively inexpensive products for the mass market without any problems.
It is worth noting that the three-dimensional memory produced by Samsung is not quite a simple three-dimensional matrix of conventional cells such as MLC NAND. To implement their unification, the cells were transferred to a special Charge technology Trap Flash (CTF) - A flash with a charge trap. The idea is that data in the form of a charge is not stored in a doped polycrystalline silicon floating gate, but in a thin, non-conductive layer of silicon nitride. In this case, the dielectric is placed between the control gate and the semiconductor channel by concentric cylinders, which ultimately increases the reliability of the entire circuit and reduces the likelihood of structural defects in multilayer production. In addition, CTF technology reduces the voltage required for cell programming. And this, of course, has a positive effect on their life time.
In addition, in the process technology used to produce 3D NAND, a material with a high dielectric constant has also been used. While such dielectrics are ubiquitous in complex semiconductor devices, this approach has so far been used only by the IMFT consortium for the production of flash memory. In the case of Samsung, it is the material with a high dielectric constant that gives room for stacking. a large number layers with cells, the gap between which can be very thin. In other words, the high-k dielectric provides a thin 3D NAND sandwich.
Samsung's 2nd generation 3D NAND 86Gb 40nm semiconductor chips have an area of about 95 square meters. mm. This means that the storage density of modern 3D NAND exceeds the data density of Micron's advanced 16nm planar flash memory chips by about 20 percent. Therefore, the transition to 3D NAND can mean not only opening up new frontiers and increasing reliability, but also in the long term reducing the cost of solid state drives based on it.
In general, there are solid pluses in the transition to 3D NAND. According to Samsung itself, this technology allows you to quickly increase the volume of chips and increases their rewriting resource by an order of magnitude. Plus, three-dimensional memory, compared to standard planar MLC NAND, has approximately twice the write speed: geometrically large 3D NAND cells are reliably protected from mutual influence, which speeds up their programming and makes it possible to refuse additional write correctness checks.
The introduction of the new 3D NAND alone makes the Samsung 850 Pro a very intriguing novelty, as its high memory performance is added to its high memory reliability. Therefore, it is not surprising that the controller underlying this SSD is matched to match the memory. While the company's previous flagship drive, the 840 Pro, was based on its own MDX controller, the new SSD uses the newer Samsung MEX chip, which is based on three cores with the ARM Cortex-R4 architecture. At the same time, the frequency of the new controller has been additionally increased from 300 to 400 MHz.
In other words, the power of the Samsung 850 Pro hardware platform has been chosen with a large margin, and the performance of this SSD will be limited primarily by the capabilities of the SATA 6 Gb / s interface. As a result, the 850 Pro series has rightfully become Samsung's new flagship offering. And, what's more, given that the predecessor of this drive was one of the fastest SSD for personal computers on the market, the new product clearly claims to be the best SATA 6 Gb / s flash drive. Let's take a look at its characteristics:
The high potential inherent in the new Samsung hardware platform can be traced very well even in simple formal characteristics. Please note that despite the fact that the flash memory array in the drive in question is filled with MLC NAND devices with an atypical capacity of 10.75 GB, the performance of all modifications of the 850 Pro is very close. Even the 128 GB version of this SSD has sequential write speeds of 470 MB/s, while flagship drives of the same size from other manufacturers offer write speeds of the order of 300 MB/s. This fact just indicates that 3D NAND has higher write speeds than conventional planar memory, and the performance of the Samsung MEX controller is enough to unlock its full potential.
The Samsung 850 Pro also demonstrates its clear advantage over competing offerings in terms of reliability. All versions of the novelty, including the younger modification of 128 GB, have a recording resource set to 150 TB. That's more than any other flagship consumer SSD.
On Samsung 850 Pro manufacturer established a very long warranty period - 10 years. Only one other consumer drive, the SanDisk Extreme Pro, has a similar warranty.
The Samsung 850 Pro does not disappoint with its additional features. So, this SSD implements hardware encryption using the AES algorithm with a 256-bit key. Moreover, the cryptographic engine is compatible with the Windows eDrive (IEEE 1667) and TCG Opal 2.0 specifications, which means that encryption can be managed from the operating system environment, for example, through the standard BitLocker function or through a third-party Wave Cloud tool. Also, the drive in question has support for the DevSleep state, which allows you to send the drive to sleep mode with a consumption of about 2 mW. And, in addition, implemented in the Samsung 850 Pro and temperature monitoring. The current temperature of the SSD is reflected in the SMART parameters, and in case of overheating, the drive controller can go into throttling and temporarily lower its clock speed.
Incidentally, presented by Samsung along with based on TLC NAND flash drive 840 EVO software technology RAPID can also work with the novelty under consideration. Recall that its essence is to allocate part of the RAM for caching access to the SSD. At the same time, data exchange speeds naturally increase, but the price for this is the risk of losing information cached in memory in the event of sudden power outages, reboots or system freezes. Simultaneously with the release of the Samsung 850 Pro, RAPID technology was updated to version 2.0, and now it can allocate either 1 GB of RAM or 4 GB for the “software” cache, depending on whether more or less than 16 GB of memory is installed in the system. Management of this technology, as before, occurs through the Samsung Magican utility, which also has a host of other useful functions.
The utility allows you to view and interpret SMART settings, update firmware, change operating system settings to increase SSD performance, perform Secure Erase, and more. It is impossible not to mention that the Samsung Magican is one of the most functional and convenient software tools monitoring and configuring the solid state drive.
Appearance and internal arrangement
For detailed testing, we chose a modification of the Samsung 850 Pro with a capacity of 256 GB. The version of this capacity has the same passport characteristics as the more capacious variants, and therefore we can rightfully extend our conclusions about it to the entire Samsung 850 Pro line.In terms of exterior, the Samsung 850 Pro solid state drive differs little from its SATA 6 Gb/s predecessors. For the new flagship, the manufacturer used exactly the same metal 2.5-inch case with a height of 7 mm, which was used in the 840 Pro or 840 EVO. It became darker, as close as possible to black, only the shade in which it is painted.
On the front side of the flash drive, a white Samsung logo and an orange square are applied with paint, which is present in one form or another on all SSDs of the company of the same form factor. On the back of the case there is a label from which you can get information about the name and capacity of the model, its article number and serial number.
Despite the fact that the Samsung 850 Pro is a flagship and somewhat premium product, its bundle is very poor. You will not find any accessories at all in the box with the SSD. So if you need to install this drive in a 3.5-inch bay of the case, you will have to look for an adapter yourself.
But the insides of the Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB can surprise a lot. The fact is that inside this SSD is used a printed circuit board of a greatly reduced size, on which only six microcircuits are placed. Moreover, all these chips are devoid of any means of heat removal: they do not come into contact with the case.
The first chip - the Samsung MEX controller itself - is already familiar to us from the 840 EVO flash drive, in which it debuted. There, she interacted with a three-bit TLC NAND, and this controller, in addition to its main functions, also provided the operation of the SLC-caching technology for TurboWrite write operations. In the new 850 Pro, all this technology is disabled - 3D NAND has a high write speed in itself, so now Samsung MEX can work even more efficiently.
A memory chip is installed above the controller. In our case, this is LPDDR2-1067 SDRAM with a capacity of 512 MB, used by the controller as RAM and for buffering operations. As for the remaining four chips with flash memory, their set turned out to be a bit unusual. Since the capacity of second-generation 3D NAND chips is 10.75 GB, two different types of chips had to be placed in the 256 GB SSD: two chips with four cores and two chips with eight cores. Thus, the controller addresses 24 cores on eight channels, that is, it uses three interleaving devices in each channel. Such an atypical configuration, as we saw from the performance data sheets, is not a problem, and the Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB under any load conditions shows the maximum possible speed along with larger models.
However, due to the non-standard capacity of 3D NAND crystals, the total amount of flash memory array in the Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB is 258 GiB, of which 92.4 percent is available outside. This means that after formatting in operating system the user will have at their disposal 238.4 honest binary gigabytes. The rest of the space is traditionally allocated to the work of garbage collection technologies, wear leveling and replacement fund.
To conclude our acquaintance with the Samsung 850 Pro, please note that there are no capacitor banks on the board in the power circuit. This means that the SSD in question does not have additional protection data integrity during sudden power outages. Of the consumer models of flagship SSDs, only the Intel 730 and Crucial M550 can boast of such protection.
Test Methodology
Testing is carried out in the operating system Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional x64 with Update that correctly recognizes and handles modern SSDs. This means that in the process of passing the tests, as in normal everyday use of the SSD, the TRIM command is supported and actively involved. Performance measurement is performed with drives in a "used" state, which is achieved by pre-filling them with data. Before each test, the drives are cleaned and maintained using the TRIM command. Between individual tests, a 15-minute pause is maintained, allotted for the correct development of garbage collection technology. All tests, unless otherwise noted, use randomized, incompressible data.Applications and tests used:
Iometer 1.1.0
Measuring the speed of sequential reading and writing data in blocks of 256 KB (the most typical block size for sequential operations in desktop tasks). Estimates of speeds are performed within a minute, after which an average is calculated.
Measurement of random read and write speed in 4 KB blocks (this block size is used in the vast majority of real operations). The test is run twice - without a request queue and with a request queue with a depth of 4 commands (typical for desktop applications that actively work with a forked file system). The data blocks are aligned with the flash memory pages of the drives. Speeds are evaluated for three minutes, after which an average is calculated.
Establishing the dependence of random read and write speeds when the drive is working with 4-kilobyte blocks on the depth of the request queue (in the range from one to 32 commands). The data blocks are aligned with the flash memory pages of the drives. Speeds are evaluated for three minutes, after which an average is calculated.
Establishing the dependence of random read and write speeds when the drive is working with blocks of different sizes. Blocks from 512 bytes to 256 KB are used. The depth of the request queue during the test is 4 commands. The data blocks are aligned with the flash memory pages of the drives. Speeds are evaluated for three minutes, after which an average is calculated.
Measuring performance under a mixed multi-threaded load and establishing its dependence on the ratio between read and write operations. Sequential reads and writes of 128 KB blocks are used, performed in two independent streams. The ratio between reads and writes varies in 10 percent increments. Speeds are evaluated for three minutes, after which an average is calculated.
Investigation of SSD performance degradation when processing a continuous stream of random write operations. Blocks of 4 KB and a queue depth of 32 commands are used. The data blocks are aligned with the flash memory pages of the drives. The duration of the test is two hours, instantaneous speed measurements are taken every second. At the end of the test, the ability of the drive to restore its performance to its original values is additionally checked due to the operation of the garbage collection technology and after the TRIM command has been processed.
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3b
Synthetic benchmark that returns typical SSD performance measured on a 1 GB disk area "on top" of the file system. From the entire set of parameters that can be evaluated using this utility, we pay attention to the speed of sequential read and write, as well as the performance of random reads and writes in 4-kilobyte blocks without a request queue and with a queue of 32 instructions deep.
PC Mark 8 2.0
A test based on the emulation of real disk load, which is typical for various popular applications. On the tested drive, a single partition is created in the NTFS file system for the entire available volume, and the Secondary Storage test is carried out in PCMark 8. As test results, both the final performance and the speed of execution of individual test traces generated by various applications are taken into account.
File Copy Tests
This test measures the speed of copying directories with files different type, as well as the speed of archiving and unzipping files inside the drive. Used for copying standard remedy Windows - Robocopy utility, when archiving and unzipping - 7-zip archiver version 9.22 beta. Three sets of files are involved in the tests: ISO - a set that includes several disk images with software distributions; Program - a set that is a pre-installed software package; Work is a set of work files that includes office documents, photographs and illustrations, pdf files and multimedia content. Each of the sets has a total file size of 8 GB.
test bench
A computer with a motherboard is used as a test platform. ASUS board Z97 Pro, Core processor i5-4590K with integrated graphics Intel core HD Graphics 4600 and 16 GB DDR3-2133 SDRAM. Drives with a SATA interface are connected to a SATA 6 Gb / s controller built into the chipset motherboard, and operate in AHCI mode. used intel driver Rapid Storage Technology (RST) 13.2.4.1000.The volume and speed of data transfer in benchmarks are indicated in binary units (1 KB = 1024 bytes).
Test participants
Given the positioning of the Samsung 850 Pro, it was not difficult to find worthy rivals for it. To compare with it, we simply took the fastest drives from leading manufacturers. As a result, the following list of tested models turned out:
Crucial M550 256GB (CT256M550SSD1, Firmware MU01);
Intel SSD 730 480 GB (SSDSC2BP480G4, firmware L2010400);
OCZ Vector 150 240 GB (VTR150-25SAT3-240G, firmware 1.2);
Plextor M6 Pro 256 GB (PX-256M6Pro, firmware 1.02);
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB (MZ-7PD256, firmware DXM06B0Q);
Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB (MZ-7KE256, Firmware EXM01B6Q);
SanDisk Extreme PRO 240 GB (SDSSDXPS-240G, firmware X21000RL).
Performance
Sequential read and write operations
All flagship SATA SSDs offer roughly the same sequential performance. This is because their controllers and flash memory are fast enough to take full advantage of the SATA 6Gb/s interface. Accordingly, the Samsung 850 Pro cannot show us anything particularly outstanding here. Yes, its result is almost maximum, but competing drives, if worse, are quite a bit.
Random reads
The speed of random operations is not limited by the bandwidth of the SATA interface, so here the Samsung 850 Pro can demonstrate all the potential hidden in it. While 3D NAND reads at the same speed as regular MLC NAND, Samsung's new SSD delivers faster than other flagship drives. Obviously, the credit for this lies with the Samsung MEX controller, which performed very well in the 840 EVO as well. Now, when the caching burden has been removed from it within the framework of TurboWrite technology, it manages to develop even faster performance. As a result, the Samsung 850 Pro is the fastest SATA SSD available on the market in terms of random reads.
This can be confirmed by the following graph, which shows how the performance of the SSD in question depends on the depth of the request queue when reading 4-kilobyte blocks.
The graph leaves no doubt that the Samsung 850 Pro is unmatched in random read operations. This flash drive is very well optimized for such a widespread workload in real life, and at any request queue depth, it demonstrates higher performance than other flagship SSDs.
In addition to this, we suggest looking at how the speed of random reading depends on the size of the data block:
As you can see, the leading performance of the Samsung 850 Pro is manifested not only when working with blocks of the most common 4-kilobyte size. In all other cases, this drive is also capable of offering the highest speed among all SATA SSDs.
Random Writes
In non-pipelined random recording, the Samsung 850 Pro falls slightly behind the OCZ Vector 150 and Crucial M550. However, with a request queue among modern SATA SSDs, it again has no equal.
In general, the dependence of the speed of random writing in 4-kilobyte blocks on the depth of the request queue is as follows:
It can be seen from the graph that the Samsung novelty under consideration is inferior to OCZ and Crucial flash drives only in the absence or small depth of the command queue. In all other situations, when the Samsung 850 Pro can show the power of its controller and the speed of writing to flash memory to the fullest, it gives higher results than all competitors.
The following graph shows random write performance versus data block size.
And again, we see that the line showing the performance of the Samsung 850 Pro, as it were, surrounds the performance of other drives from above. And this means that there is not a single block volume option on which the SSD in question would not show the best result.
Mixed load testing is a relatively new addition to our SSD testing methodology. As the cost of solid-state drives is no longer used as exclusively system drives and become ordinary work drives. In such situations, the SSD receives not only a refined load in the form of writes or reads, but also mixed requests, when read and write operations are initiated by different applications and must be processed simultaneously.
However, full-duplex operation for modern SSD controllers remains a significant problem. When mixing reads and writes in the same queue, the speed of most consumer-grade SSDs sags noticeably. This was the reason for a separate study, in which we check how SSDs perform when it is necessary to process sequential operations interspersed. The following chart shows the most typical case for desktops, where the ratio of the number of reads and writes is 4 to 1.
Samsung's previous flagship drive, the 840 Pro, was good at just about everything. However, under mixed load, its performance was not very outstanding. The company's new SSD, the 850 Pro, has upgraded to the next faster controller and improved on its predecessor. However, we cannot say that the new product demonstrates the same excellent performance as with simple read and write operations, and with a mixed load, we cannot. Here, the Samsung 850 Pro loses out to the OCZ Vector 150 and Crucial M550. In other words, mixed workload puts Samsung's 3D flash drive, which performs simply outstanding in most tests, in a far from favorable position.
The following graph gives a broader picture of mixed load performance, showing the speed of an SSD versus the ratio of reads and writes to it.
The more read and write operations are mixed, the lower the performance of the Samsung 850 Pro is. The curve corresponding to this flash drive has a clear U-shape, which indicates poor optimization of the Samsung MEX controller for full duplex operation. And although this behavior is typical of many solid-state drives for personal computers, the performance drop of the Samsung 850 Pro in mixed operations reaches a very noticeable twofold size. It turns out that, having high speeds for the same type of operations, Samsung 850 Pro can lose to its competitors in the case when the load is not so primitive.
Performance degradation and recovery
Observing the change in the write speed depending on the amount of information written to the disk is a very important experiment that allows you to understand the operation of the internal algorithms of the drive. In this test, we load the SSD with a continuous stream of random write requests for 4K blocks and monitor the performance that is observed along the way. In the graph below, the dots represent the instantaneous performance measurements that we take every second, and the black line shows the average speed observed over a 30-second interval.
The drop in performance of the Samsung 850 Pro with a continuous recording load looks just the same as a reference. As long as the amount of written data is less than the full capacity of the drive, the 850 Pro shows a completely stable speed at 89 thousand IOPS. Then, when the controller has to deal with erasing and programming flash memory cells, the speed drops, gradually decreasing by the end of our two-hour test to 13-14 thousand operations per second. The good news is that SSD performance fluctuations, both fresh and used, are minimal. This allows the Samsung 850 Pro to be successfully used where consistent performance is important.
There are no other jumps on the graph, except for those caused by the exhaustion of free flash memory cells. This means that not only does the Samsung 850 Pro not have any TurboWrite analogues, but there are no additional internal caching technologies that increase performance at all. They are simply not needed here. However, if you want to increase the performance of the Samsung 850 Pro in benchmarks, then the Samsung Magican utility and the RAPID "virtual disk" mode can come to the rescue.
However, everything that is shown in the above graph is a synthetic situation, interesting only for studying the features of the controller, but not illustrating the behavior of SSDs in real life, where the TRIM command has a significant impact on performance. Therefore, it is much more important how, after such degradation, the performance is restored to its original values. To investigate this issue, after completing a test that leads to write speed degradation, we wait 15 minutes, during which the SSD can try to recover on its own due to garbage collection, but without help from the operating system and the TRIM command, and measure the speed. Then the TRIM command is forcibly sent to the drive - and the speed is measured again.
Samsung's previous flagship drive, the 840 Pro, was not able to recover its performance through garbage collection without the help of the TRIM command. This situation has not changed even now, when it was replaced by the 850 Pro. TRIM support in the operating system is also critical for the new product, otherwise you will have to face degradation of write speeds. But in the case when TRIM is supported (to be fair, we note that TRIM is supported in modern environments in 99 percent of cases), there is no problem with a drop in speed and cannot be. The Samsung 850 Pro is fully restored, bringing back the performance of an SSD just taken out of the box.
Results in CrystalDiskMark
CrystalDiskMark is a popular and simple test application that runs "on top" of the file system, which allows you to get results that are easily replicated by ordinary users. And what this benchmark produces, from a qualitative point of view, almost does not differ from the indicators that we obtained in the heavy and multifunctional IOmeter package.
In the screenshot you can see very impressive results. In terms of CrystalDiskMark, the Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB in question is faster than any other modern flagship flash drive in any type of workload, with the exception of non-pipelined random writes, in which it is inferior to the OCZ Vector 150 and Crucial M550. However, it should be added that the speed of the flagship SATA SSDs in simple synthetic benchmarks like CrystalDiskMark is quite close to each other, so we can’t talk about the overwhelming superiority of the Samsung 850 Pro over its competitors.
PCMark 8 2.0 Real Use Cases
The Futuremark PCMark 8 2.0 test suite is interesting in that it is not synthetic in nature, but on the contrary, it is based on how real applications. During its passage, real scenarios-traces of using a disk in common desktop tasks are reproduced, and the speed of their execution is measured. Current version This test simulates a load that is taken from real-life Battlefield 3 and World of Warcraft gaming applications and software packages from Abobe and Microsoft: after effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. The final result is calculated as the average speed that the drives show when passing the test tracks.
Performance in PCMark 8 is one of the most important parameters for understanding how good a particular drive is in real use. And if we rely on the figures obtained here, then the conclusion is that the Samsung 850 Pro, which amazed us with the highest results in various synthetic tests, in real work in applications, is not at all as fast an SSD as it seemed at first. We have already seen that under a mixed load, when read and write operations alternate with each other, the performance of this drive sags, and these are the conditions that are formed in a large number of real-life tasks. As a result, the integrated score of the Samsung 850 Pro in the PCMark 8 test is worse than that of the Intel 730 480 GB and the Crucial M550. In addition, the novelty is a little behind the previous one. Samsung flagship. This, of course, is not a disaster at all, but the fact that in some cases the Samsung 850 Pro may be slightly inferior to other options is still necessary to keep in mind.
The integral result of PCMark 8 should be supplemented with performance indicators issued by flash drives when passing individual test tracks, which simulate various variants of a real load. The fact is that under different loads, flash drives often behave a little differently.
It turns out that the Samsung 850 Pro has several problematic applications, the results of which drag the overall PCMark 8 score down. These are Microsoft Word, Battlefield 3, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe AfterEffects. The listed applications are characterized by the fact that the load in them is clearly heterogeneous in nature with predominant read operations, but the write operations mixed with them seriously reduce the read speed. We saw a similar situation in mixed load tests, and here it manifested itself in the results of a test based on real tasks. But in other applications, such as Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and World of Warcraft, the drive in question produces consistently excellent results.
Copying files
Keeping in mind that solid-state drives are being introduced into personal computers more and more, we decided to add to our methodology the performance measurement during normal file operations - when copying and working with archivers - that are performed "inside" the drive. This is a typical disk activity that occurs if the SSD does not play the role of a system drive, but a regular disk.
Overall, the Samsung 850 Pro handles copy operations very well. It is quite obvious that for working as a working disk this is one of the best options. However, when copying large files, the new Samsung noticeably lags behind other flagships - SanDisk Extreme Pro and OCZ Vector 150.
The second group of tests was carried out during archiving and unzipping the directory with working files. Fundamentally, the difference in this case lies in the fact that half of the operations are performed with disparate files, and the second half - with one big file archive.
When working with archives, the situation is ambiguous. However, if we talk about the average speed for the last two tests, then the Samsung 850 Pro is only behind the SanDisk Extreme Pro, which can be attributed to the fastest SSD today along with the flash drive in question.
conclusions
Over the past few years, Samsung has become one of the main players in the market for solid state drives for personal computers. The strategy of this company is simple and effective: Samsung has a vertically integrated production and creates all the components for its SSDs completely in-house. This allows it to deeply optimize the components of its drives and implement new technologies in them much faster than all competitors. The first fruits of this tactic were the 840 and 840 EVO drives, in which Samsung was able to use TLC NAND and thanks to this it gained a foothold in the low-cost segment. Now the company is applying the same technique to the high-performance enthusiast sector. The Samsung 850 Pro is the first MLC flash based SSD in the market with a 3D layout. Moreover, it is obvious that similar proposals from other manufacturers will be able to appear no earlier than in a year.All this makes the Samsung 850 Pro a truly unique offering. What aspect of consumer characteristics do not take, given SSD in any case, it will be among the best options. Performance? The Samsung 850 Pro outperforms all rivals in the same class in almost any load scenario, only marginally inferior to individual competitors in mixed operations. Reliability? Here, the Samsung 850 Pro has no equal at all: the declared resource of this SSD is obscenely large, guarantee period is ten years, and the 3D NAND used in its basis is free to endure several tens of thousands of rewriting cycles. Profitability? The Samsung 850 Pro has DevSleep support, and even at maximum load it does not differ in increased power consumption and heating. What can I say, even the software utility offered by Samsung for its own SSDs is one of the best.
Of course, such an outstanding solution cannot be cheap by definition. And if you look at current retail prices, it turns out that the Samsung 850 Pro is one of the most expensive SATA SSDs for personal computers. But how could it be otherwise?
And that is why we would be happy to recommend the Samsung 850 Pro for all cases without exception, since this SSD has many advantages and really no noticeable drawbacks, but we still cannot do it. With a limited budget, it would be more logical to pay attention to other proposals. For example, the same Crucial MX100 is quite a worthy option with about 75 percent lower unit price per gigabyte. As for the Samsung 850 Pro, it will mainly be of interest to those uncompromising enthusiasts who want to get top speed disk subsystem at any cost and at the same time they are going to use a high-speed SSD not only for installing the system and programs, but also for storing their work files.
However, it should not be overlooked that even such an outstanding solution as the Samsung 850 Pro cannot jump over the barriers put up by the SATA 6 Gb / s interface. And its performance in many cases rests precisely on them, and not on the power of the internal SSD controller or throughput flash memory array. And this means that as soon as consumer SSDs switch from the SATA interface to PCI Express, even such a great product as the Samsung 850 Pro may immediately turn out to be not at all as unsurpassed solid state drive as it seems in this moment.
3 years ago
seduced by the zoom and the bright colors on the display, the video shoots well, the stereo sound is also on top
4 years ago
1. Basically good quality pictures. 2. Fast operation (turn on and focus). 3. Excellent zoom (Even from the plane, good pictures were obtained). 4. Nice variety of shooting modes. 5. How smart camera contains many functions, although I occasionally used Wi-Fi to transfer photos, I never used GPS. 6. The camera survived a lot of travel and took 18766 photos.
5 years ago
Small, given its zoom; excellent stabilization, when shooting video at the far end, as if on a tripod, high-quality stereo, adequate sound level control, copes well with overload at concerts, clarity at all zoom positions, fast focusing, decent pictures in the dark without flash, very good skin tones, white balance is almost perfect even in difficult conditions, long battery, I can put it on for two weeks, and then use it again (Wi-Fi, GPS are turned off). The ability to take photos during video shooting, in full (!) Resolution, however, only 6 photos.
5 years ago
Compact, lightweight, great zoom. It is convenient to control the zoom. Wide-angle lens with good aperture and decent diameter.
5 years ago
good zoom good image quality for the price
6 years ago
Already wrote. In addition, a lot manual modes. Warranty 3 years.
6 years ago
First of all, the speed of its work, it recognizes the shooting conditions well, the BSI matrix helps out in low light.
6 years ago
Zoom, of course, many different functions and modes, as well as manual settings, appearance.
7 years ago
Huge zoom, FULL HD recording, Bright Screen, Compact (relatively).
7 years ago
1. a bunch of different bells and whistles 2.21x zoom. 3.Full HD video. 4.GPS 5.WiFi 6.AMOLED screen. 7. Dual image stabilizer.
3 years ago
I regretted the money thrown away when I bought it, it was expensive, before that I used Sonya, heaven and earth, even without unnecessary and unnecessary bells and whistles such as jeepires and wifi .... and yes, like everyone else, the independent switching of the operating mode device brought me to rabies, eventually banged against the wall, amen!
4 years ago
Disadvantages: 1. It's hard to take pictures at night with a small amount of lighting. 2. Strong distortion of photos at the edges when the lens is tilted, for example, when photographing tall buildings. Problems: 1. The first malfunction (after about 1.5 years) was a failure of the brightness control when shooting in Smart mode, photos in normal lighting darkened unnaturally. 2. The wheel for changing modes turned out to be short-lived, after 2 years it began to scroll by itself, changing modes (this defect spoiled a lot of nerves, and replacement turned out to be expensive). 3. Poor protection of the lenses from dust, after 2.5 years the dust got between the lenses and did not come out for a long time, making it difficult to take pictures (after swimming in the river, the silt was perfectly observed between the lenses, although the camera was turned off after diving).
5 years ago
Blue goes into turquoise, the sky is a little unnatural, when you zoom in and try to switch to the video at the same time, it freezes; there is no separate charger(for the battery, only through the device itself), the duration of the video is limited to 20 minutes. There is practically no macro like this, if only approximate objects are on blurred background receive. Settings have to be done through the menu, including switching to macro, which takes a long time.
5 years ago
A weak battery - no more than 300 shots without any flashes - is especially annoying in museums. Focusing is not fast, it practically does not work at x19-21. In difficult shooting conditions (darkness, light spots under foliage, especially when cloudy), even a relatively large lens and BSI CMOS do not help - no comparison with the Kodak Z981. Strong fisheye effect due to the 28mm lens. Dead colors - no comparison with photo brands (Kodak, Konica Minolta), etc. The shooting mode translator quickly began to fail - you press the shutter button, but instead the modes switch. The flash charges very slowly. There is no sports mode.
5 years ago
autofocus is slow, and often it can’t adjust at all due to poor autofocus, the video turns out to be not very video with a large number of frames, you need to shoot only under the spotlight) the terrible menu constantly flickers, which is often duplicated by gps, it takes a very long time to set up, so I have few pictures with a label very inconvenient as a result, I almost didn’t use wifi (you can’t even upload all the photos to the computer, you have to select them one at a time) pictures are obtained only in very good lighting
6 years ago
Can't focus. Do not read cards larger than 1 GB. Constant glitches spontaneously switches from mode to mode. Discharges very quickly. It is not clear how to reflash. To be honest, the build quality, although superb, always gives the impression that the equipment is very fragile. All the time you are afraid to drop it, because the device is kind of angular.
6 years ago
especially not
6 years ago
The battery that needs to be removed from the camera constantly, otherwise it is discharged is a wild failure and you can’t fix it in any way - I have already tried everything - it does not depend on the settings and firmware.
7 years ago
IMAGE DISTORTION IS FUCKING FUCKING, just take a picture of a person without zoom and everything will fall into place. The head is elongated, the legs are in different directions - Frankenstein! You have to adjust and take a picture placing the object strictly in the center. When I discovered this bug, it was already too late to take it, I have to endure it. Video recording is certainly not at the highest level, the noise of the motors is clearly audible when watching the video. The sound quality is disgusting. A flash is generally something with something, if you do not hold it when extended, it seems that it will soon break, it rarely turns on automatically, you have to use manual settings. Blurring of images is very strong, noise from all sides without a flash, I take pictures with a flash even during the day. GPS for an amateur, use it as a navigator anyway nobody
7 years ago
1.Battery runs out overnight. 2.HDR photo raw function
It all adds up to performance
The 850 PRO delivers a new level of performance beyond your expectations for sequential reads of up to 550 MB/s and random reads up to 100,000 IOPS. Plus, achieve over 2x* faster performance with RAPID mode enabled by Magician software to processes data on a system level using DRAM as cache. *These results were determined by PCMARK® 7 testing with scores of 7,864 and 20,172 with RAPID mode off and on using a 4TB drive.
Elevate the endurance level
With heavy workloads, endurance is everything. The 850 PRO is a game changer, withstanding up to 600 terabytes written (TBW) and backed by a 10-year limited warranty.* Dynamic Thermal Guard protects it from overheating while an AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption engine secures your data and is compliant with TCG™ Opal standards and IEEE® 1667 protocol. *10-year warranty or TBW (256 GB: 150 TBW, 512 GB/ 1 TB: 300 TBW, 2 TB: 450 TBW, 4 TB: 600 TBW), whichever comes first.
Seamless, synergistic integration
Leverage our world-class integration expertise. Samsung designs every component of the SSD in house, including the V-NAND flash memory, controller, DRAM and firmware - all fine-tuned to work in perfect synergy.
Solid-state drives with the new 3D NAND memory have already been tested by CRUCIAL and ADATA. But SAMSUNG was one of the first to use this technology, and it would be wrong to get a complete picture of the new type of memory without studying the 850 EVO series. We will also study it using the 500 GB version as an example. This series turned out to be interesting, the company updated the series without noisy announcements. For some time, two versions were available on the shelves of Russian stores, now everything has stabilized, only the current revision is presented in official retail.
In it, instead of the 32-layer 3D NAND of the second generation, they began to use 48-layer third-generation chips. The density of cells has increased, and in the future this paves the way for high-capacity SSDs. The main change was the new technical process, while Samsung assures that the characteristics have not changed, for users this upgrade could go unnoticed. In reality, we see absolutely new model SSD, but with the same name, retaining only the MGX controller. For us, this test will also be interesting by looking at the solution of a company that uses its own chips, there are few such manufacturers on the market. We will compare its work with the Crucial CT525MX300SSD1 drive.
Samsung 850 EVO review
Equipment
One of the differences was the updated packaging. The design of the design and the set of information have changed. Now the inscription flaunts on the box: "V-NAND SSD 850 EVO".
The bundle is modest, it includes only a set of documentation hidden in an envelope. There is no usual frame for increasing the thickness of the case.
Appearance
The case design has not changed. Samsung 850 EVO is made in a black case with a minimalist design. With a thickness of 7 mm, these drives can be used to upgrade a laptop.
By the way, one of the improvements was a reduction in power consumption, in the case of desktop systems this is not critical, but for laptops it can extend battery life.
Instead of a decorative sticker, there is a silver Samsung logo on the lid. On the reverse side there is a sticker with technical data.
There are differences in the labeling, updated drives come with numbers: S2P, S2R or S2S.
The case is fixed with screws. Disassembly will damage the sticker.
Filling
The reduced dimensions of the printed circuit board of the Samsung 850 EVO attract attention. It does not exceed 2-3 cm in length. The thermal interface is not used for contact with the body.Soldered two third-generation TLC 3D V-NAND memory chips with 256-gigabit cores. Half the number of memory chips is now used to obtain the required volume. Reducing the degree of parallelism reduces the load on the controller. If earlier the older MEX processor (850 Pro) was used for the 1 TB and 2 TB versions, now the 1 TB comes with a dual-core MGX processor borrowed from the first revision.
Also, new chips no longer allow you to build 120 GB solid state drives, the minimum version comes with 256 GB. Updated DRAM buffer, LPDDR3 instead of LPDDR2 SDRAM. For every 1 GB, there is 1 MB of buffer capacity. 6 GB SLC cache, the younger version has 3 GB.
Tests Samsung 850 EVO
| Model | Data |
|---|---|
| Frame | Aerocool DreamBox |
| Motherboard | ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake (oc - 4700 MHz) |
| CPU cooler | Deep Cool Captain 240 EX |
| video card | Palit GTX1080 Super JetStream |
| RAM | Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 32GB (oc - 2700 MHz) |
| HDD | Intel SSD 530 240 GB |
| Hard disk 2 | Crucial MX300 750 GB |
| Hard disk 2 | Kingston SSDNow UV400 480 GB |
| Power Supply | Zalman ZM850-EBT |
| Audio | Creative Sound BlasterX G5 |
| Monitor | iiyama ProLite E2773HDS |
| Monitor 2 | Philips 242G5DJEB |
| mouse |
At the beginning of this year, we planned a small update of the test methodology, but we decided to postpone it a little so that we could compare three more interesting drives with all previously studied ones. What is so interesting about them? First of all - the manufacturer and his history.
Unlike many other companies operating in this market, Samsung stood at its origins (so to speak), and it has always been “interested” in high-end devices. In particular, it was the Samsung 64 GB SSD SATA-2 about ten years ago that was one of the few competitors of the Intel X25-M at the time of the release of the latter, and in a number of scenarios it then remained unsurpassed. Of course, this did not save him: like all "first generation" devices, high speed performance was achieved through the use of fast, but very expensive SLC memory. The X25-M showed another way to improve performance: combining a [relatively] inexpensive MLC flash with an intelligent controller. As a result, it turned out fast device priced at $600 for 80 GB - to which Samsung and others could only answer with a 64 GB model for $ 1000.
The company made the right conclusions, immediately starting to develop controllers. At first they were sold to many manufacturers, but there were not enough stars from the sky. On the other hand, this made it possible to accumulate the necessary experience and finally decide on the directions for further development. Two serious decisions were made: firstly, to sell the business of hard drives (so as not to interfere), and secondly, to produce solid-state drives completely of our own design, and without giving away components to the outside. The first at that time seemed a bold but risky step: after all, hard drives had a very stable demand due to prices, so flash memory could not compete directly with them. However, with t. z. For the largest semiconductor manufacturer, it was logical to just work on making it possible :) What the company did in the following years, especially having such a serious trump card up its sleeve as independent production of everything you need, as well as first place in terms of production of flash memory specifically. As a result, controllers could always be "fitted" to memory, and memory to controllers, and Samsung depended much less on market conditions than most manufacturers - rather, the company determined it. Many promising areas were also correctly calculated in advance. In particular, more than four years ago we already got acquainted with - in fact, the second attempt by the company (the first was the "regular" 840) to create a fast and reliable drive based on TLC memory, which no one used for this then. And he didn't even try. It cannot be said that there were no rough edges at all, but valuable experience was gained. In particular, the SLC caching technology was tested at the same time.
It would seem that there is something special? Now TLC memory is already familiar - everyone uses it. And SLC cache too. But that was, remember, in 2013. And around the same time, Samsung decided to go into "3D" flash memory, as the traditional approach of keeping "normal" cells and reducing production rates began to gradually come to a standstill. However, in those years, all manufacturers started talking about the transition to 3D NAND, since everyone was in a similar position. But from conversations to implementation, a lot of time always passes - someone overcomes this path faster, someone more slowly. Samsung managed to get ahead of everyone: already in mid-2014, the first commercial products using V-NAND (as the developer called it) appeared. At first, the company configured this memory exclusively as MLC, to work in a more gentle mode, but since 2015, the number of crystals that can work reliably with eight levels has begun to increase, which allows you to store three bits of information. Note, by the way, that Samsung prefers not to use the abbreviation "TLC" when referring to "3-bit MLC". In principle, this is quite correct, although some may be confusing. But for most buyers, it is important, after all, not what is called, but how it works. And today we will study this using the example of three Samsung products - two completely new and one also almost new.
Samsung V-NAND SSD 850 Evo 500 GB
The first drives of the line with this name appeared, as already mentioned, in 2015. In principle, they were very similar to the 840 Evo, but they used 32-layer 3D of the same capacity instead of 128 Gbit planar crystals. The assortment has slightly thinned: 120 / 250 / 500 / 1000 GB - without an interesting intermediate model with a capacity of 750 GB. The older model even retained the same tri-core MEX controller as in the 840 Evo, while the rest received dual-core, but improved MGX, paired with LPDDR2 memory with a frequency of 1066 MHz and a capacity of up to 1 GB. At the same time, the drive (like its predecessor) was positioned as a competitor to mid-range devices - at that time mainly using MLC memory. However, even those often had only a three-, not five-year warranty, which has become the hallmark of the Evo family. Including the 2 TB modification that appeared a little later - which at that time was a very serious value, so it required the appearance of a special MHX controller (at the same time, the DRAM cache in this model was transferred to faster LPDDR3 memory).
Significantly surpassed in the second generation 850 Evo, which already used 48-layer 3D NAND with 256 Gb crystals. In principle, this, all other things being equal, would make it possible to convert the model range from “120 / 250 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 GB” to “250 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 4000 GB”, which was done, but also by other equal companies not limited. By switching, for example, the DRAM cache from LPDDR2 to LPDDR3 in the entire line, etc. However, these improvements were mostly cosmetic and did not affect performance too much. Yes, this was not required - a streamlined production process made it possible to produce fast and reliable memory, while competitors were still taking only the first steps along this path.
And at the end of last year, the company once again updated the 850 Evo - since production had already been transferred to 64-layer memory: more cost-effective. There are no fundamental changes between the models, so, like the previous “upgrade”, this one went quietly: just with a certain moment the supply of old-style drives stopped and only new ones began to be shipped. One could look for some differences in terms of modifications - in particular, devices with a capacity of 1 TB or more began to use 512 Gb crystals, but in 250 and 500 GB, 256 Gb remained to maintain the performance characteristics at the same level. And cache memory type LPDDR3 based on "megabytes per gigabyte of capacity." The warranty, of course, remained five years - limited to TBW according to the formula "75 TB for every 250 GB", i.e. 150 TB for our hero.
The main thing for the buyer, in general, in all these evolutionary changes was the constant price reduction. Other manufacturers, as a rule, achieved a similar effect by releasing new models - Samsung preferred to modify the existing one. In the end 850 Evo at the end life cycle this is not the same 850 Evo as at the beginning. In 2015, these drives did not try to compete in price with the cheapest SSDs on the market - for this, Samsung sometimes released planar TLC devices, such as the 750 Evo or 650. In 2017 they already could. At the same time, their speed characteristics at least did not decrease - the introduction of TLC memory in products from other companies, as we have already noted more than once, was usually accompanied by a decrease in performance and reliability. However, three years is a long time: during this time, both controller manufacturers and 3D NAND from other suppliers have “pulled up”. To which Samsung prepared not even one, but two answers.
Samsung V-NAND SSD 860 Evo 500 GB
Just a few months after the last "upgrade" of the 850 Evo, the company released new line drives - on the same memory. Almost the same: nothing has changed in models from 1 TB, and the 500 GB modification (which we will test today) received 512 Gb chips similar to the older ones, instead of 256 Gb. Thus, under some conditions, it may lag behind its predecessor, which can be considered a disadvantage. But quite predictable: 500 GB no longer causes any reverence, gradually turning into a running volume, at a price affordable for many users. Why do you need to reduce the cost - even at the cost of reducing some speed characteristics.
Since this will not always happen: the new series of drives also received a new MJX controller. It remained dual-core, but the clock frequency has almost doubled, which allows you to work with more complex algorithms. In particular, for the first time in many years (since the very appearance in the 840 Evo!) the SLC cache has changed. Previously, it was static, but now, if necessary and there are free cells, the new controller can use some of them in the SLC mode, postponing the "compression" of data "for later" - when the load decreases. In practice, this means that if the 840 Evo and all 500 GB versions of the 850 Evo could high speed accept only 6 GB of data (static SLC cache, 3 GB in size for every 250 GB of capacity), then in a similar 860 Evo the limit has already been increased to 22 GB. In principle, the latest Silicon Motion controllers (such as SM2258 or SM2259) can record in SLC mode at least all free cells (i.e., up to a third of the total capacity of the device), but in practice the first value is sufficient. Strictly speaking, for the majority of users who are not fond of “hunting for parrots” in benchmarks, 6 GB was more than enough, but since competitors have appeared, one must somehow respond to this.
In principle, an increase in TBW to maintain warranty conditions can also be considered a response to external influences. For example, those that appeared last year have a five-year warranty, but limited to 72 TB for every 128 GB of capacity. In the 850 Evo, we recall, 75 TB by 250 GB, i.e. almost half as much. And in the 860 Evo, it's already slightly larger, since the previous value is doubled: 150 TB for every 250 GB. In general, no one bothered the company to do this before. And not only because the drives are physically capable of this - just when they are used "as intended" in ordinary personal computers, the recording volumes are much more modest. Why do manufacturers limit them? To protect yourself a little from a fairly popular "non-purpose" use - when consumer drives with a long warranty are installed somewhere in the server: backups is, but "covered" - will change. Naturally, this reduces the sales of devices for the corresponding purpose, which is absolutely not necessary for their main suppliers (and Samsung is one of them in full). Especially given the presence of another product in the range ...
Samsung V-NAND SSD 860 Pro 512 GB
The release in 2018 of a new line of SATA drives based on MLC memory is, of course, a very bold decision, but quite justified. In any case, if we abstract only from requests spherical PC users in a vacuum and look at the market more broadly. After that, we will immediately see, for example... various network storages. NVMe devices are not needed there. Until recently, it was believed that SSDs were not needed at all, since they are too expensive, and performance is not determined by them. When using gigabit network adapters and a small number of simultaneous requests is true. And a dozen or two users can immediately work with some kind of corporate storage, and a 10 Gb / s channel can be used to connect it to the switch - and here the hard drives will already be a bottleneck, which we repeatedly test top-end NAS watched. Solid state drives won't. Of course they cost more, but if the problem can be solved for money, then this is no longer a problem, but only expenses:) In principle, a device based on TLC memory is also suitable for such work, but MLC will provide more stable speed characteristics, and the resource too.
More interesting in this case is the issue of memory used. The previous MLC line of the company, namely the 850 Pro series drives, used a rejection from 3D TLC NAND - which is also the reason for the slightly atypical crystal size at the start: 86 Gbps. The word “rejection”, of course, should not be frightened: it is obvious that the mode of operation of cells with four levels is much more gentle than with eight, and not only faster. The new drives use crystals of 64-layer MLC 3D NAND, with a capacity of 256 Gbps. With TLC, this does not “beat” in any way, so it can be assumed that Samsung makes such memory on purpose. On the other hand (which is more likely given the fact that it is already 2018), this may also be a by-product of the work on mastering the production of crystals QLC 3D NAND with a capacity of 512 Gb. It is clear that the production of high-quality memory of this type is very difficult, but it still needs to be dealt with. And then what was said above works - having its own production (and the largest in terms of volume), Samsung does not depend on the market situation. If the company had to buy memory on the open market, launching an SSD on the MLC would be extremely risky. With own production - no. Especially if these are really those chips that are unable to store four bits per cell - they still need to be put somewhere. And as a result, buyers can purchase a device with a large resource - TBW for models of 1 TB and above is just right to call PBW, since the bill goes to petabytes, which is a little unusual for custom drives. Actually, for 512 GB we are talking about 600 TB for a five-year warranty period - against 300 and 150 TB, respectively, for 860 / 860 Evo. But not cheap, of course. But, at least, there is a corresponding offer in the company's assortment, which you can use - if necessary or simply if you wish (and financially possible).
Competitors
For comparison, we decided to take the results of two drives: and , since both are relevant at the moment and use a similar (in the first approximation) memory. The 545s and our heroes also have a five-year warranty in common, and the limitations of its conditions are similar to the 860 Evo (however, who stood on whom It's a tricky question, as mentioned above. Until recently, Blue 3D had a three-year warranty, but now the company has begun the process of increasing it to the same five years. However, even under the "old" conditions, you can compare Blue 3D with other participants - this is also a drive from a large and well-known manufacturer, and the prices are close.
Testing
Test Methodology
The technique is described in detail in a separate article. There you can get acquainted with the hardware and software used.
Application performance
As expected, in terms of tests high level all are about the same. But not really - if you arm yourself with a magnifying glass, you can see that the Samsung SSD trio is slightly faster than the Intel and WD offerings. And the distribution of seats inside it is also predictable: the fastest is the 860 Pro, and the slowest is the 860 Evo. However, to notice this, you no longer need a magnifying glass, but a microscope :)
As for potential capabilities of drives, then in general the picture has not changed - except that the gap from the "pursuers" has increased. As a result, modern versions of Evo are the first SATA drives on TLC memory that have fallen into our hands, capable of exceeding 300 MB / s in this test. However, regardless of its type, only one device capable of this has previously been in our laboratory - Toshiba Q300 Pro 256 GB. Thus, the only thing that somewhat overshadows the significance of the event is potentiality this result.
The previous version of the test package shows us a similar picture. In general, for Samsung drives rather favorable than vice versa. That is, it is clear that if the difference in speed is noticeable only in tests, it can be neglected - but, all other things being equal, why not choose a faster drive. With unequal - already need to choose: what is more important.
Sequential Operations
With these scenarios with a limited data area, everything has long been clear - the limiter for SATA drives is the SATA interface itself. Including when writing, since SLC caching has long been the standard behavior of TLC-based drives, and no tricks are needed for MLC memory. Therefore, in the updated test methodology we will complicate the task :) And today we will simply postpone the final verdict until more serious loads.
random access
Samsung controllers have long been coping with such loads easily and naturally, 3D NAND of its own production has never been slow either - as a result, the results are high. Unless the loss of the 860 Evo to its predecessor of the same capacity may upset someone, but there is nothing unexpected in it - increasing the capacity of crystals and reducing their number should have worked. In the end, the performance margin was sufficient so that even after its decrease, it would still outperform drives of the same class from other manufacturers, and “intra-company” competition is still not planned: as the old reserves are exhausted, the 850 Evo will simply disappear from the shelves .
Working with large files
Reading data, as has been repeatedly said, has not been a problem for memory of any type for a long time (controllers can limit performance), so everyone amicably rested on the interface at a comparable level.
The write obviously "flies" beyond the capacity of the SLC cache, despite the increase in its capacity in 860 Evo, and the performance of the memory array itself has decreased due to reduced parallelism. Accordingly, if the 850 Evo gave out a maximum for SATA600, then its successor cannot. And it even lags behind competitors who use 256 Gb crystals in models of this capacity, "holding" larger ones for larger capacities.
Another difficult (still) scenario for TLC drives is writing while reading. However, for obvious reasons, this problem does not affect the 860 Pro - the use of two-bit cells paired with a high-performance controller allows the device to demonstrate the maximum performance available for SATA600. But the drives of the Evo family are noticeably slower - especially with (pseudo) random access. However, it is also easy to see that it is possible to provide noticeably higher performance only due to tricks, such as the “infinite” SLC cache of drives based on the latest Silicon Motion controllers, but not when using conventional static caching. Yes, and "unusual" as in the 860 Evo too - it copes only with smaller amounts of information. However, all this becomes insignificant if we remember that most solid-state drives are not doing better :) But, at the same time, their manufacturers do not leave such a choice as Samsung (which updated the MLC line - albeit at the appropriate price).
Ratings
As mentioned above, the performance of the 860 Evo could have been reduced - anyway, "in parrots" it is longer than its main competitors. And if you need even more "feathered ones", it is customary to hunt for them in other places - equipped with other interfaces, in any case. The latter has long determined a lot - why we immediately wrote that the 860 Pro is not about speed in the first place. In any case, not about the one that is interesting to the individual PC user.
But, of course, representatives of this line will perfectly cope with such loads - they are simply redundant for this. As well as the warranty resource is also from a completely different area, but it may come in handy for especially suspicious buyers. And in terms of performance and Evo is enough. Including and the new series - where it has slightly decreased, but still remained noticeably higher than that of most competing developments. In any case, within the class, it is clear that changing the interface allows you to remove some bottlenecks (at least in terms of low-level characteristics), but this is a different story.
Prices
The table shows the average retail prices of SSDs tested today, as of the time you read this article:
| Intel 545s 512 GB | Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB | Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB | Samsung 860 Pro 512 GB | WD Blue 3D 500 GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Total
In principle, we did not count on any discoveries: Samsung, as already mentioned at the beginning, has solid experience in both the development of solid-state drives in general and the use (and production, which is especially important) of 3D NAND TLC. In fact, the company simply overtook its competitors “at the turn”: everyone talked about the need to switch to 3D NAND, but the transition itself was very difficult for the majority. The resulting head start in a couple of years at Samsung disposed of in the right way, as a result of which now the company's solutions based on TLC memory are among the best on the market. And it is very important that by now they can even be considered inexpensive: from the “middle” class, the Evo line has gradually descended into the budget one, without losing its advantages along the way.
At the same time, high production volumes allow the company not to completely abandon MLC NAND. Of course, this memory has already turned into niche solution, but niche she definitely has. And with further price reduction, it will only expand. And of course, the 860 Pro will be relatively popular with ordinary users, since some of them are still wary of TLC memory. It is clear that they will have to pay extra for psychological comfort ... But on the other hand, what else is worth paying for, if not for comfort? :)
This is the situation today. What will happen tomorrow is unknown. In the semiconductor market, you definitely need to run just to stay in place, and to get somewhere you need to run twice as fast. In the near future, new “turns” await us in the form of the introduction of QLC NAND, or even “non-NAND” memory. And which of the manufacturers will cope with the transition to the best extent, only time will tell. So far, no one is seriously threatening Samsung's position in the SSD market, and the new lines of drives fully confirm this.