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Samsung SSD 950 Pro: A high-end drive for Skylake system builders

By Kenny Yeo - 22 Oct 2015

AS SSD Results

AS SSD 1.8.5636.36856 Results

AS SSD is a benchmark that uses non-compressible and completely random data. This benchmark is useful because some controllers, like the once popular but now defunct SandForce SF-2281, compress data first before moving them around. However, with non-compressible and random data, controllers cannot compress the data first, which forces them to deal with data as they are. Therefore, this is a useful benchmark to prevent drivers using controllers like the SF-2281 controller or similar from gaining an upper hand.

Beginning with the Copy Benchmark which simulates copy workloads of different types of files, the Samsung SSD 950 Pro was again the comfortable leader. Overall, it was about 35% quicker than all the other SATA-based drives here, which is certainly significant. Moving on, its sequential read and write speeds were predictably impressive and were about 43% quicker overall than the fastest SATA-based drives in the market today. However, we noticed that its write performance in the 4K, 64 queue depth workload was underwhelming and not in line with our expectations. Clearly, write performance in high queue depth scenarios is proving to be problematic for this drive and needs to be addressed. 

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8.5
  • Performance 9
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 8
The Good
Blazing performance
Incredibly small M.2 form factor
High endurance rating
Supports latest interface and NVMe protocol
Easy-to-use Samsung Magician utility
The Bad
Requires a motherboard with PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots or appropriate PCIe 3.0 adapter
NVMe drivers still need work
Shorter warranty compared to predecessor
Pricey compared to SATA-based drives
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