How to measure read speed on storage using 1600 files totalling over 320 GB, enabling comparison between internal and external SSDs.
benchmarks
Progress benchmarking performance of internal SSDs in M1 Macs: tests of 400 files totalling over 130 GB written and read in less than 50 seconds. And results.
Fast compact external SSDs are prone to thermal throttling. This is demonstrated during tests writing 96 files, when transfer rates fell from 2 GB/s to around 700 MB/s.
It started with wanting to benchmark SSDs, passed through robust linear regression, and is now diving deep into linear programming and matrices.
Improved tests, statistical analysis, and interface, together with a 21 page Help book detailing its range of tests in 5,000 words. Ready to use for real.
Detailed tutorial steps you through getting accurate and reproducible benchmarks for your disks. Also further projects and tests you can try.
Now with proper random write and read tests, sophisticated analysis including group medians and linear regression, and detailing reporting.
Can M1 Macs really defy the laws of physics and read files from SSD at around 12 GB/s? Or are their performance improvements more modest?
Using 140 files of sizes 10 KB – 2 GB, the M1 read files significantly faster than a T2 Mac, but the latter wrote files slightly quicker. Highest read rate on the M1 was 10.8 GB/s, which seems almost incredible.
A new version of Stibium which performs series tests raises further questions about benchmarking SSDs on Intel and M1 Macs. And is an X5 worth the extra cost?
