AS SSD:
AS SSD is a relatively new benchmark designed specifically for solid state drives. The application contains five synthetic tests used to determine the sequential and random read and write performance of a drive.
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (RAPID Mode) |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB |
 Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB |
AS SSD also includes a copy benchmark. This test copies an ISO (two large files), program (many small files) and game (small and large files), returning the speed and duration of each.
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (RAPID Mode) |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB |
 Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB |
HD Tune Pro 5.00:
Next, I ran a series of tests using HD Tune Pro. This hard disk utility measures a drive's performance by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its access time, burst rate and CPU usage. For this review, I'm also going to use it to benchmark the 850 EVO M.2's random read and write speeds, random access times and the number of operations per second.
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB - Read Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (RAPID Mode) - Read Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB - Read Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB - Read Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB - Write Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (RAPID Mode) - Write Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB - Write Benchmark |
 Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB - Write Benchmark |
The 850 EVO M.2 performed relatively well when benchmarked with HD Tune. The drive had average read and write speeds of 383.8 MB/s and 293.2 MB/s, respectively, and a burst rate of 224.5 MB/s when reading. Surprisingly, RAPID mode had very little impact on the drive's read speed. However, it was slightly faster when writing.
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB - Random Access Read |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (RAPID Mode) - Random Access Read |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB - Random Access Read |
 Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB - Random Access Read |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB - Random Access Write |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 250GB (RAPID Mode) - Random Access Write |
 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB - Random Access Write |
 Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB - Random Access Writ |
The 850 EVO M.2 didn't disappoint when doing random reads and writes. When reading 4KB blocks, it reached 17,660 IOPS and had an average speed of 68.985 MB/s. The drive was even faster when writing, reaching 23,191 IOPS with an average speed of 90.590 MB/s. As you can see, RAPID mode gave the 850 EVO M.2's random read and write performance a considerable boost. With it enabled, the drive reached 127,291 random read IOPS and 99,601 random write IOPS.
