PCMark 8 - Storage Test:
PCMark 8 is a complete benchmark for Windows. It includes five benchmark tests, each designed around a specific scenario. The storage benchmark measures drive performance using real-world traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of popular games.
PCMark 8 also includes a consistency test which measures the performance consistency and degradation tendency of a storage system. The test reports the performance level at the start, the degraded steady-state and the recovered state as well as the number of iterations required to reach the degraded state and the recovered state. For this test, we are focusing on the Adobe Photoshop (Heavy) trace and will look at both the bandwidth and latency of the drive
The 980 didn't do as well as some of the other drives in this test. Its bandwidth dropped below 40 MB/s during the degradation and steady state phases, pushing its latency above the 900ms mark. Sadly, the 980's performance didn't increase very much during the recovery phase. It lagged well behind the drives from SK hynix and Crucial, topping out at only 93 MB/s.
PCMark 10 - Full System Drive Benchmark:
PCMark 10's Full System Drive Benchmark uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the fastest modern drives. This benchmark produces an overall score as a measure of drive performance. Comparing devices is as simple as comparing scores. The tests also measure and report the bandwidth and average access time performance for the drive.
Thanks to its high bandwidth and low latency, the 980 did quite well in PCMark 10's Full System Drive Benchmark. The only PCIe 3.0 SSD that performed better was the Plextor M9PG Plus.
