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2020 iMac - SSD Speeds (512GB and 1TB (or greater))

J

JulesK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2002
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One observation that seems pretty consistent in the reviews of the 2020 iMac is that the 256GB SSD in the cheapest configuration is not particularly fast for a SSD. Does anyone know whether the 512GB or 1TB SSDs that you can get in the other two models are faster by any meaningful amount?

Many thanks in advance.
 
JulesK said:
One observation that seems pretty consistent in the reviews of the 2020 iMac is that the 256GB SSD in the cheapest configuration is not particularly fast for a SSD. Does anyone know whether the 512GB or 1TB SSDs that you can get in the other two models are faster by any meaningful amount?

Many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Bigger SSDs mean faster speeds, it’s the nature of how SSDs are. Larger capacities can read and write more data in parallel. The 512GB and 1TB drives will be faster than the 256GB.
 
PieTunes said:
Bigger SSDs mean faster speeds, it’s the nature of how SSDs are. Larger capacities can read and write more data in parallel. The 512GB and 1TB drives will be faster than the 256GB.
Click to expand...
Do you think there would be another bump in speed for the 4tb and 8tb SSD? I think these SSD are on its own expansion board. Not sure if that makes a difference
 
mindquest said:
Do you think there would be another bump in speed for the 4tb and 8tb SSD? I think these SSD are on its own expansion board. Not sure if that makes a difference
Click to expand...
Not sure what those drive speeds would be since I've no machines to test, but the speed differences between the 4 and 8 probably are fairly close to each other. The higher capacity you go, the max speed increases but tapers off, the larger differences in speed are between the lower capacities. Apple's own testing and marketing pegs their 8TB SSD at 3.4GB/s read and write speed and I believe the 4TB drive is close to that as well.
 
Thanks the replies! I didn't realize that speed might primarily be a function of capacity. Does anyone know the speeds of the 512K and 1TB SSDs in the 2020 iMacs?
 
JulesK said:
Thanks the replies! I didn't realize that speed might primarily be a function of capacity. Does anyone know the speeds of the 512K and 1TB SSDs in the 2020 iMacs?
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly the 512GB is roughly double the speed of the 256GB. The 1TB will be faster still but not by as much.
 
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JulesK said:
Thanks the replies! I didn't realize that speed might primarily be a function of capacity. Does anyone know the speeds of the 512K and 1TB SSDs in the 2020 iMacs?
Click to expand...
blackmagic-imac.jpg

Here is a screen shot from a review of the $2299 iMac stock configuration with the i7 and 512GB SSD. Custom iMacs are starting to trickle in so soon we should start seeing reviews and benchmarks of the larger capacity drives.
 
I'm interested in seeing @Fernandez21's results as well. I'd like to upgrade my Late 2012 iMac, but SSD speed is a big factor. I'm debating between the 2TB and 4TB options. I'd love to have the 8TB so I wouldn't need an external drive at all anymore, but who can afford that? Since I still need an external hard drive for the lower models, I'm leaning towards the 2TB version, but if the 4TB SSD has significantly faster sequential reads than the 2TB, that would be enough to persuade me to bump up the storage. I have a very large, custom database where an extra 1GB/s would be very noticeable.
 
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mindquest said:
Thanks for testing it! Now really curious what the 8TB will test out at. Probably not alot of iMac's with that configuration.
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Yeah no problem I was in the process of doing all this anyways... I just got my new 2020 in the mail today. I'm probably going to return it (ouch) because I don't like the nano-texture glass' softness... But, going to sleep on it.

My previous iMac was a 2017 w 512GB SSD and the write speed has slowed down a lot since I got it... I usually keep around 15% of the SSD available, but the write speeds in Blackmagic's test fluctuate from ~600-1300MB...

When spec-ing the 2020 I knew I was going to do at least 1TB, then I thought, "eh I should do 2TB", then of course I just went crazy and went with 4TB... Do I need the space? Not particularly, but I do have some personal video projects I'm going to be working with that involve many, many large files; plus you know it just fills up over time. Plus, a Windows partition big enough to game on really can get quite big these days because of the size of game installs...

So, 4TB it is!
 
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_z_ said:
I'm interested in seeing @Fernandez21's results as well. I'd like to upgrade my Late 2012 iMac, but SSD speed is a big factor. I'm debating between the 2TB and 4TB options. I'd love to have the 8TB so I wouldn't need an external drive at all anymore, but who can afford that? Since I still need an external hard drive for the lower models, I'm leaning towards the 2TB version, but if the 4TB SSD has significantly faster sequential reads than the 2TB, that would be enough to persuade me to bump up the storage. I have a very large, custom database where an extra 1GB/s would be very noticeable.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay, here is the speed test, 4tb SSD, core i9, 5700XT, 64gb Samsung ram (2x32gb)
bf9226b448ae0474962c60b08034b4b8.jpg
 
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ZacksWorld said:
Yeah no problem I was in the process of doing all this anyways... I just got my new 2020 in the mail today. I'm probably going to return it (ouch) because I don't like the nano-texture glass' softness... But, going to sleep on it.

My previous iMac was a 2017 w 512GB SSD and the write speed has slowed down a lot since I got it... I usually keep around 15% of the SSD available, but the write speeds in Blackmagic's test fluctuate from ~600-1300MB...

When spec-ing the 2020 I knew I was going to do at least 1TB, then I thought, "eh I should do 2TB", then of course I just went crazy and went with 4TB... Do I need the space? Not particularly, but I do have some personal video projects I'm going to be working with that involve many, many large files; plus you know it just fills up over time. Plus, a Windows partition big enough to game on really can get quite big these days because of the size of game installs...

So, 4TB it is!
Click to expand...

Ha, same happened to me, needed at least 1tb, then I thought .... 2tb would be good so I could have a 1tb windows partition...... then I thought, well games are pretty large these days and that might not be enough on the windows side.... so 4tb it was.
 
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Just for comparison sake, my 2017 iMac 2TB SSD was getting around 2700 write / 2500 read when new and is now showing about 2000 write / 2500 read after 3 years of daily use. It's about 70% full at the moment.
 
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Anyone with 1 TB care to share?

Also, is it confirmed the 4TB isn't soldered on. so can theoretically be replaced?
 
madmin said:
Just for comparison sake, my 2017 iMac 2TB SSD was getting around 2700 write / 2500 read when new and is now showing about 2000 write / 2500 read after 3 years of daily use. It's about 70% full at the moment.
Click to expand...

I have a 2017 27" iMac w 512GB SSD and when I got it it was around 2100/2350 or something like that, but now after three years with it ~85% full it's been getting 600-1300/2000.... so slow!

When I get to down to around 70-75% full it stays around 1400-1500/2000...
 
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