M1 Mini SSD Speed keeps getting faster

[jwahaus]

I benchmarked my M1 Mac Mini's internal SSD speed today and noticed that its gotten substantially faster than when I benchmarked it several months ago. I recently received a new TB4 hub and was benchmarking SSD's attached to it and decided just for fun to benchmark the Mini's internal SSD speed again. I recently updated to Monterey 12.6.3 so perhaps that has something to do with it. Before I was getting around 2700MB/S Write and 2500MB/S Read. Today I got this:

This is from a 2020 M1 Mac Mini with 512MB SSD.

 

[Juicy Box]

I’m not sure if this is your case, but if you tested it when the Mac mini was brand new or if you recently installed an operating system, macOS tends to spend at least a few hours indexing, and this can slow your drive.

Indexing usually last from a few hours to a day or two after a new OS install or new device.

Another thing that can have a big impact on SSD speeds is the amount that is being used on the SSD.

 

[sam_dean]

I benchmarked my M1 Mac Mini's internal SSD speed today and noticed that its gotten substantially faster than when I benchmarked it several months ago. I recently received a new TB4 hub and was benchmarking SSD's attached to it and decided just for fun to benchmark the Mini's internal SSD speed again. I recently updated to Monterey 12.6.3 so perhaps that has something to do with it. Before I was getting around 2700MB/S Write and 2500MB/S Read. Today I got this:

View attachment 2151902
This is from a 2020 M1 Mac Mini with 512MB SSD.

Although I see the reasoning why Apple slowed down write/read throughput as a form of shrinkflation... it just feels weird that newer Macs are slower than yours.

Top end PC SSDs are at 7-7.4GB/s

 

[jwahaus]

I’m not sure if this is your case, but if you tested it when the Mac mini was brand new or if you recently installed an operating system, macOS tends to spend at least a few hours indexing, and this can slow your drive.

Indexing usually last from a few hours to a day or two after a new OS install or new device.

Another thing that can have a big impact on SSD speeds is the amount that is being used on the SSD.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't indexing before. If you look at Mac Mini M1 benchmark tests from a year ago or more you'll see that people were consistently getting around 2400MB/S Write and 2800MB/S Read. I expect Apple has made improvements in the OS that increased the SSD speed.

 

[jwahaus]

Although I see the reasoning why Apple slowed down write/read throughput as a form of shrinkflation... it just feels weird that newer Macs are slower than yours.

Top end PC SSDs are at 7-7.4GB/s

The newer Macs are only slower if you order them with the base level SSD size. Since the slower speed has become such a hot issue Apple should allow people to pay a few extra dollars and get a faster version of the SSD (i.e. 2x128MB verses 1x256MB)

Fully populated Mac Pro and Ultra's also achieve around 7.5GB/S. I'm not sure if any of the SSD's below 8TB achieve this speed, it all depends on how many chips are populated.

 

[sam_dean]

The newer Macs are only slower if you order them with the base level SSD size. Since the slower speed has become such a hot issue Apple should allow people to pay a few extra dollars and get a faster version of the SSD (i.e. 2x128MB verses 1x256MB)

Fully populated Mac Pro and Ultra's also achieve around 7.5GB/S. I'm not sure if any of the SSD's below 8TB achieve this speed, it all depends on how many chips are populated.

If Mac SKUs would have double the RAM & SSD at the same price, chip, CPU cores & GPU cores.

​

Mac model	MSRP	Chip	CPU (Core)	GPU (Core)	RAM (GB)	SSD (TB)
iMac 24"	$1,699	M1	8	8	16	1
iMac 24"	$1,499	M1	8	8	16	0.5
iMac 24"	$1,299	M1	8	7	16	0.5
Mac mini*	$1,299	M2 Pro	10	16	32	1
Mac mini	$799	M2	8	10	16	1
Mac mini	$599	M2	8	10	16	0.5
Mac Studio	$3,999	M1 Ultra	20	48	128	2
Mac Studio	$1,999	M1 Max	10	24	64	1
Mac Studio**	$3,999	M2 Ultra	24	60	128	2
Mac Studio**	$1,999	M2 Max	12	30	64	1
MBA	$1,499	M2	8	10	16	1
MBA	$1,199	M2	8	8	16	0.5
MBA	$999	M1	8	7	16	0.5
MBP 13"	$1,499	M2	8	10	16	1
MBP 13"	$1,299	M2	8	10	16	0.5
MBP 14"	$3,099	M2 Max	12	30	64	2
MBP 14"	$2,499	M2 Pro	12	19	32	2
MBP 14"	$1,999	M2 Pro	10	16	32	1
MBP 16"	$3,499	M2 Max	12	38	64	2
MBP 16"	$2,699	M2 Pro	12	19	32	2
MBP 16"*	$2,499	M2 Pro	12	19	32	1
MB 12"***	$699	A16 Bionic	6	5	8	256GB
Mac nano***	$299	A16 Bionic	6	5	8	256GB

Note:

*If RAM & SSD were increased my choice would be the $1299 Mac mini M2 Pro if there was no iMac 27" replacement & the $2499 MBP 16" M2 Pro. Both of which would have 32GB RAM & 1TB SSD.

**My guess on the CPU core & GPU core count of the future 2023 Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra SKUs.

***iPhone chip-based Mac. If M1 & M2 can be used in an iPad Pro & iPad Air why not use iPhone chip in a cheap laptop & desktop? "Mac nano" uses the 2022 Apple TV 4K enclosure as to make it 0.27L instead of 1.39L of the Mac mini. This reduces shipping cost as you can pack in more "Mac nano" per shipping pallet.

 

[CausticPuppy]

My M1 Mini (16GB / 256GB) scores 2317MB/s write, 3008MB/s read, which is about the same as when it was brand new. I think your initial results were slowed down by the indexing.

My external thunderbolt SSD scores 1269 write, 1518 read which is about as fast as the M2 256GB drives though! I could actually get a faster enclosure supporting 2800MB/s but not really worth it for my use case.

 

[Juicy Box]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't indexing before.

I am still thinking it was due to indexing, but instead of guessing, I think this is something that can be tested.

Are you thinking that the new OS improved the speeds? Or Firmware? What size SSD do you have?

 

[Juicy Box]

Another problem with comparing speeds with others posted from a few years ago is that different size SSDs on the M1 Mac Mini have different speeds.

Also, not all users post the % used if there SSD. Comparing speeds from a 80% used M1 Mac Mini SSD to one the same size that has 80% free, the speeds could be significantly different.

BMDST isn’t the best app to use for comparing speeds. It is only sequential and things like the settings used and % used isn’t shown on the screenshot.

Comparing the same Mac with different settings could have a significant impact on the results.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Maybe once the SSD is broken in, the electrons move more easily...