Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (1TB) – Differing Series Controllers Compared

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0 X64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Performance is virtually identical, regardless of data sample so we have included only that using random data samples.

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB CDM

In Crystal Disk Mark the 850 EVO was able to achieve an impressive maximum sequential performance of 540.9MB/s read and 523.2MB/s write. On the 4K section we can see a high of 48.29MB/s for read and 149.0MB/s for write. These results are close to the lower capacities, however, we can see 4K speeds are around 5MB/s slower on both reads and writes for the 1TB model. And again, 512K transfer speeds prove to be a little better in this 1TB model as well.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.7

The toughest benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD as it relies solely on incompressible data samples when testing performance.  For the most part, AS SSD tests can be considered the ‘worst case scenario’ in obtaining data transfer speeds and many enthusiasts like AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB AS SSD Samsung 850 EVO 1TB AS SSD IOPS

In AS SSD, we can see the 1TB model reached a total of 1228 points. Sequential speeds reach around 517MB/s for reads and 502MB/s for writes. This result similar to that of the lower capacities. However, when looking at the 4K speeds, we can again see lower performance from this 1TB model. 4K reads hit 44.46MB/s and writes hit 127.17Mb/s. Still, this result is very impressive, the 4K reads are better than the 850 Pro’s. And finally, this gives us our first glimpse of what kind of IOPS figures the 1TB model is capable of. It reaches about 96K/82K read/write IOPS. Slightly lower than the advertised numbers of 98K/90K.

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB AS SSD CopyThis AS SSD Copy Bench test is a true to life evaluation as AS SSD creates three files (ISO/Program/Game), and simply moves them from one part of the SSD to another, recording their top speed and total transfer time. Results prove the 1TB model to surpass the lower capacities in this benchmark.

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

Anvil’s Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today.  The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times.  Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB AnvilIn Anvil Storage Utilities the 1TB Samsung 850 EVO scored 5,472.32 points. Max sequential read speeds reach 518.09MB/s and sequential write comes in at 500.24MB/s. 4K speeds prove similar to the other benchmarks, 43.67MB/s for read and 137.55MB/s for write. To compare, the 120GB and 500GB models were able to hit 50Mb/s in 4K reads for this test.

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB Anvil IOPS Read Samsung 850 EVO 1TB Anvil IOPS Write

Since AS SSD wasn’t able to present us with the advertised IOPS, we decided to give it ago with Anvil. Read and write IOPs are better here at 97.2K/88K read/write, however still slightly lower than the advertised.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:

  • Windows Defender In Use
  • Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
  • Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
  • Starting the Vista Operating System
  • Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time consuming
  • Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as Xbox
  • Cataloging a music library
  • Starting applications

PCMARK VANTAGE RESULTS

PCMark Vantage gives us our first look into real world performance. The Samsung 850 EVO returned a Total Point Score of 76,235 with a high transfer speed of 455MB/s while testing in Windows Photo Gallery.  More interesting though, is the fact that all but the last test result were in the SATA 3 result area. This was the same result as that of the Samsung 850 Pro 1TB model we tested previously. Under the application loading test the SSD was only able to hit 196MB/s. However, the lower capacities models were able to achieve speeds of around 350-360MB/s. This resulted in a much lower overall score of about 10K points less.

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB PCMark Vantage

21 comments

  1. blank

    Any idea why this drive isn’t offered in a 1.5 or 2 TB version? There is room in the housing and there must be a market for larger drives.

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        Cost was a huge factor. Some one at Samsung asked me if I would be willing to spend $1,000 or more for a SSD I said no. they are having a hard time selling 1TB ssd’s.

      • blank

        Make them cheaper and they sure will sell 🙂

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        As we use affiliate sales, I cannot get into numbers but to say that Samsung has yet to market a SSD that doesn’t sell. Their choice of release timings for all of their products to date has been dead on with customer need.

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        I just bought 2X 1TB 850 evos. I can guarantee a 2TB drive will shortly become available just to spite me. That’s how it always works. The Want is there, but the product isn’t. Yeah fine the controller needs to be blah blah, and yada yada. they were already quick to strip 1 core off the MEX without any performance loss. How hard could it be. one thing I could say is though, the minute I see a 2GB SSD i’m picking it up, Samsung or not.

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      No demand really. Also more than 1TB requires more complex controller (ie more blocks to adress) or bigger block size.
      Given the EVO is a consumer drive, 1TB is just as much as it makes sense to sell right now. But that doesn’t mean there will be no 2TB+ drives in the near future.

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        NO DEMAND??? o_O Where have you been??? Many people are interested in 2TB SSDs.

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        Simply because you would like a 2TB SSD does not create demand. The interest is there but, even with present day sales, the validation that there is a need for large capacity consumer SSDs just isn’t there. This can be easily seen with lower capacity sales compared to even 512GB drives today, much less the 1TB capacity. Samsung will not market any drive unless they can be assured that there will be big sales.

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        Not that many though. Atleast not for consumer drives.

    • blank

      There certainly is a market for larger SSDs.

  2. blank

    Awesome review, thanks. 🙂

  3. blank

    Great drive, but pricing kills it right now. Its more expensive than competing options; infact 1TB is almost 120€ more expensive than ULTRA II for example.

  4. blank

    Hi! Thanks for your awesome site.
    I am loathe to join the forums when I have little to discuss, always forgetting and mislaying my login details between visits. Hopefully it is not too cheeky to ask for some advice here:
    If somebody wanted to buy a sata 3 SSD, contining a half-height PCB, for the purpose of a hack, can you recommend a manufacturer that do not use warranty-destroying security tape, or other measures to prevent this potential fun.

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    I have just installed 850 EVO 1TB in my mid 2012 Macbbok Pro (i5, 8GB RAM) having Mac OX Yosemite 10.10.3 . It has made computer blazingly fast and has made it better than any other computer I used till date. My question is whether I can install a third party TRIM as it is not provided by Mac OSX Yosemite.

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      Trim Enabler. The pro version costs 10 bucks, but the driver itself it free. Just installed the 850 on a 2012 MacBook Pro and it runs like a dream.

  6. blank

    I have bought this drive and installed it on a macbook pro mid 2009 and so far so good. With the release of MAC OS X 10.10.4 with the TRIM enable option, should i enable it or not? Does this drive need this or not because of the native features? Thanks, Miguel.

    • blank

      If the ability to enable TRIM is there as a confirmation, we would always recommend such, although most drives are built well with Garbage Collection in their firmware as they have always had.

  7. blank

    850 is probably the most overhyped SSD I’ve ever seen. It’s not that great.

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