Xbench: Benchmarking How Fast the 2013 rMBP SSD Really Is

[john123]

I think many of us are interested in one question: just how much benefit is the new PCIe storage in the late 2013 Retina MacBook Pros likely to yield in some real-world situations? We all know that the PCIe SSDs blow away the previous generation in sequential reads and writes, but I'd be fascinated to know how things are stacking up across different capacities and utilizations, especially for random reads and writes, which are often better indicators of real-world usage.

As such, I'd like to ask people with 2012 and 2013 rMBPs (15" especially) to take a minute and post their Xbench Disk Test numbers. You can download Xbench here: http://www.xbench.com/Xbench_1.3.dmg

I created a template to post the results. If you can fill out just the first three lines and screen grab the rest as shown, that would be great. If enough people do this, I'll be able to aggregate the data and produce some useful visualizations.

Model: Mid-2012/Early-2013/Late-2013—plus other info you want to share
SSD Size 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
SSD Manufacturer SD (SanDisk), SM (Samsung), TS (Toshiba)
Free Space Currently on SSD: Asking since this affects write performance

XBench Results
Overall Result:
Overall Sequential Result:
Sequential Uncached Write 4k blocks:
Sequential Uncached Write 256k blocks:
Sequential Uncached Read 4k blocks:
Sequential Uncached Read 256k blocks:
Overall Random Result:
Random Uncached Write 4k blocks:
Random Uncached Write 256k blocks:
Random Uncached Read 4k blocks:
Random Uncached Read 256k blocks:

I'll start.
Model: Mid-2012 2.0Ghz Ivy Bridge, 8GB RAM
SSD Size: 256GB
SSD Manufacturer SM (Samsung)
Free Space Currently on SSD: 33GB

 

[mthos]

Model: Late 2013 15" Haswell rMBP - 2.3GHz, 16GB, 512GB, GT 750M
SSD Size: 512GB
SSD Free: ~300GB
SSD Manufacturer: (SM) Samsung PCIe
Bootcamp On Drive: YES (WIN7)

 

[Watabou]

15" Late 2013 rMBP -> 16GB RAM/512GB SSD/750M
Space free: 364.75 GB

 

[SpitUK]

2.3Ghz, 16Gb, 256Gb, Iris Pro only...

 

[john123]

This is good stuff. Keep 'em coming! The random read-write performance you guys are seeing with the new PCIe drives, especially with small blocks, is fascinating...

2.3Ghz, 16Gb, 256Gb, Iris Pro only...

How much free space do you have on your drive?

 

[SpitUK]

Its only 2.5Gb at the moment, my drive is always full!

 

[PDFierro]

I think many of us are interested in one question: just how much benefit is the new PCIe storage in the late 2013 Retina MacBook Pros likely to yield in some real-world situations? We all know that the PCIe SSDs blow away the previous generation in sequential reads and writes, but I'd be fascinated to know how things are stacking up across different capacities and utilizations, especially for random reads and writes, which are often better indicators of real-world usage.

As such, I'd like to ask people with 2012 and 2013 rMBPs (15" especially) to take a minute and post their Xbench Disk Test numbers. You can download Xbench here: http://www.xbench.com/Xbench_1.3.dmg

I created a template to post the results. If you can fill out just the first three lines and screen grab the rest as shown, that would be great. If enough people do this, I'll be able to aggregate the data and produce some useful visualizations.



I'll start.
Model: Mid-2012 2.0Ghz Ivy Bridge, 8GB RAM
SSD Size: 256GB
SSD Manufacturer SM (Samsung)
Free Space Currently on SSD: 33GB
Image

Gee, only 33GB left on a 256? Running it kind of tight there.

 

[sarakn]

Model: Late 2013 15" Haswell rMBP - 2.6GHz, 16GB, 1TB, GT 750M
SSD Size: 1TB
SSD Free: ~773GB
SSD Type: Samsung PCIe

 

[Jaben3421]

Model: Late-2013 15" 2.6Ghz Crystalwell, 16GB RAM
SSD Size: 512GB
SSD Manufacturer SM (Samsung)
Free Space Currently on SSD: 440GB

 

[john123]

Gee, only 33GB left on a 256? Running it kind of tight there.

The guy above me with 2.5GB has it way worse. And yeah, I know. For a little while, it was down around 10GB. That is tight.

 

[cbbp]

Model: late 2013 rMBP 13", 16, 2.8 i7
SSD Size: 1TB
SSD Manufacturer SM (Samsung)
Free Space Currently on SSD: 630Gb

 

[john123]

Wow, the 1TB drive looks absurdly good across the board.

 

[pat.micunnis]

How long does Xbench take to run? It keeps hanging up / freezing.

 

[sabbyp]

1TB
Free Space: 901.1gb

 

[PDFierro]

Wow, the 1TB drive looks absurdly good across the board.

The 1TB definitely seems strong!

 

[mac8867]

Model: Late-2013—13"
SSD Size 1TB
SSD APPLE SSD SM1024F Media

XBench Results
Results 1119.88
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.9 (13A2093)
Physical RAM 16384 MB
Model MacBookPro11,1
Drive Type APPLE SSD SM1024F
Disk Test 1119.88
Sequential 733.48
Uncached Write 1526.26 937.10 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 1186.86 671.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 292.16 85.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1876.35 943.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 2366.68
Uncached Write 1917.11 202.95 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 2390.38 765.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 3806.96 26.98 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 2051.30 380.63 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

[johnnylarue]

Wow, the 1TB drive looks absurdly good across the board.

Consistent with its absurd price!

(Yes, I'm jealous.)

 

[PDFierro]

Consistent with its absurd price!

(Yes, I'm jealous.)

You know you want it.

 

[Watabou]

I'm probably going to be upgrading to 1TB if possible, but I will wait until the price comes down. If OWC offers it, even better because I can use the 512GB I currently as an external.

 

[johnnylarue]

You know you want it.

You don't know the deep shame I feel when I tell my coworkers I just spent $2700 (after tax) on a laptop... followed by an explanation that this is actually $480 off its retail price. (That's about 2700 tacos, if I'm doing the LA tacos to dollars conversion correctly.)

I don't think I could live with myself if I'd forked over another $450 for the 1TB "Planet Eater" MBP config. Gotta draw the line somewhere... (unfortunately! )

 

[mthos]

How long does Xbench take to run? It keeps hanging up / freezing.

The THREAD test will hang XBench in Mavericks for some reason..

Uncheck THREAD test and leave everything else enabled it will run through the full test.

For what we are doing here, uncheck EVERYTHING except DISK test.

ALSO:

I edited mine to add 'BOOTCAMP ON DRIVE: YES'. Add if you have bootcamp partition on your drive yes/no. I wonder if this has any affect at all, as some of us with the same drives getting ~100+ higher scores over others.

 

[Freyqq]

Model: Late 2013 15" Haswell rMBP - 2.3GHz, 16GB, 512GB, GT 750M
SSD Size: 512GB
SSD Free: ~350GB
SSD Manufacturer: (SM) Samsung PCIe
Bootcamp On Drive: YES (WIN8.1)

Total: 863.86
Sequential: 572.30
Random: 1761.02

 

[cirus]

Random 4K performance is nothing special or even low compared to a lot of other drives on the market.

Unfortunately that is probably the most important aspect of performance in day to day use.

 

[Macshroomer]

Looks great to me, 13" 2.8/16/1TB, 505GB used, battery powered, left result, plays *real* nice with my 240GB Envoy SSD via USB3, right result:

 

[PDFierro]

Looks great to me, 13" 2.8/16/1TB, 505GB left, plays *real* nice with my 240GB Envoy SSD via USB3...

Damn boy, filled that up quick! Man, I love these speeds that the 1TB offers.