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 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 990 PRO did fairly well throughout PCMark's consistency test. While the average bandwidth dropped below 600 MB/s during the degradation and steady state phases, it was still faster than many of the SSDs we've tested, including the ADATA LEGEND 960 and the SK hynix Platinum P41. More importantly, the 990 PRO had no problems bouncing back during the recovery phase.
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 990 PRO did very well in PCMark 10's Full System Drive Benchmark. It beat both the Plextor M10PY and the SK hynix Platinum P41 to take the top spot in this test.
