SSD speed differences

[TerryLO]

Is there a speed/performance difference between the 500 gig, 1 tb and 2 tb SSD drives in the new MacBook Pro?

 

[PieTunes]

I'm pretty sure the speeds are identical regardless of capacity, 3.1 read and 2.1 (or 2.2 for the 15" MBP") write.

 

[jksu]

typically larger capacity ssd drives are faster. how much you'll notice in day to day use is minimal

 

[TerryLO]

Thanks, folks. Anyone else have any hard specs on the SSDs speeds, or know of third party tests?

In the past, my perceived performance of my MacBooks were limited by the speed of secondary storage (e.g. SSD or HD), and not CPU speed, due to the virtual memory swapping taking place with the relatively limited main memory. So, I will only "need" 1TB of SSD in a new MacBook Pro 15" (with lots of additional external storage), but I would get the 2TB SSD if its real world read/write speeds provided noticeably quicker virtual memory swaps.

Further thoughts and insights?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks, folks. Anyone else have any hard specs on the SSDs speeds, or know of third party tests?

Look at the disk speed tests in the Ars Technica review here. They show the 512 faster than the 256 and that is consistent with about all flash storage devices due to the way the chips are laid out on larger drives.

There is a thread here with some 1TB tests and they are a little faster than the 512, but not a whole lot.

Just from reading SSD reviews in general over the years, the speed bump from larger drives really diminishes after 512GB. I'd be really surprised if you could tell the difference between 1TB and 2TB.

 

[Sanpete]

Look at the disk speed tests in the Ars Technica review here. They show the 512 faster than the 256 and that is consistent with about all flash storage devices due to the way the chips are laid out on larger drives.

There is a thread here with some 1TB tests and they are a little faster than the 512, but not a whole lot.

Just from reading SSD reviews in general over the years, the speed bump from larger drives really diminishes after 512GB. I'd be really surprised if you could tell the difference between 1TB and 2TB.

Just to be clear, the 256 is a Sandisk, and the 512 is Samsung, so that may account for more of the difference than size does in that case.

 

[Weaselboy]

Just to be clear, the 256 is a Sandisk, and the 512 is Samsung, so that may account for more of the difference than size does in that case.

It is possible that is some of it, but you can take about any SSD on the planet and the 512 will be faster than the 256 because of the physical layout of the chips allowing more data throughput. You can read about any SSD review and see this is very consistent.

 

[Sanpete]

It is possible that is some of it, but you can take about any SSD on the planet and the 512 will be faster than the 256 because of the physical layout of the chips allowing more data throughput. You can read about any SSD review and see this is very consistent.

True, but Samsung is also producing the fastest stuff at the moment. Hard to say which accounts for how much of the differences (which aren't only that the 512 is faster on the whole--in some respects it's slower).

 

[Wowereit]

Won't really call a 3 to 5% difference faster.
Going with more SSD capacity that you don't need just for speed is nonsense.

 

[TerryLO]

Thanks, Weaselboy. Very helpful links/references.

 

[zarathu]

The research showed that you won't notice any difference unless you are moving very very large files. A speed increase of an opening window or a program that now opens at .2 seconds faster will not be noticable to most normal human beings.

 

[LegolasWang]

Hello there,

I tested 256GB version and 2TB version using blackmagic.

The read speed all maxed out blackmagic's test at 2000MB/s

The write speed is where the difference is,

256GB got an average of 1300MB/s after 2 minutes of test.

2T got an average of 1970MB/s after 2 minutes of test.

Hope this helped you.