OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCIe SSD Performance Preview

by Dave Altavilla — Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 12:00 PM EDT

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PCMark Vantage HDD

We really like PCMark Vantage's HDD Performance module for its real-world application measurement approach to testing. PCMark Vantage offers a trace-based measurements of system response times under various scripted workloads of traditional client/desktop system operation. From simple Windows start-up performance to data streaming from a drive in a game engine and video editing with Windows Movie Maker, we feel more comfortable that these tests reasonably illustrate the performance profile of SSDs in an end-user/consumer or workstation PC usage model.

This series of Vantage tests will stress mostly read performance in real-world usage models, with a broad mix of sequential and random read transactions of both small and large file sizes.

Futuremark's PCMark Vantage

In terms of overall performance, the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 offered the best results here in these mostly read-intensive workload. The Gaming module in PCMark Vantage, for example, employs data decompression that is required in loading a compressed game level from the drive being tested. Another area where the RevoDrive 3 X2 shined was Windows Photo Gallery, where importing digital images into the application is the required workload. Both of these tests require larger sequential transfers, an area of strength for RevoDrive 3 X2. The only test where OCZ's new PCIe SSD lagged behind a touch was Vista start-up, where it couldn't quite catch the Fusion-io ioDrive. The caveat here is of course that Fusion-io's product is not bootable, so the datapoint holds a bit less weight with us as a result.

On a side note, that we did test the RevoDrive 3 X2 as a boot volume, just to see how snappy it was getting to a Windows 7 desktop. Unfortunately we were met with lack-luster results. OCZ informed us that this is because the drive is currently employing 32-bit drivers in Windows currently and our 64-bit installation was hampering performance. We were also assured that OCZ will be releasing full WHQL certified 64-bit drivers with the product when it ship to retail channels.