We really like PCMark 7's Secondary Storage benchmark module for its pseudo real-world application measurement approach to testing. PCMark 7 offers a trace-based measurement of system response times under various scripted workloads of traditional client / desktop system operation. From simple application 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 PC usage model, more so than a purely synthetic transfer test.
Whether RAPID mode is enabled or not, the two Samsung SSD 840 EVO series drives we tested put up some of the best scores we have seen in the PCMark 7 storage benchmark to date.
As you can see, enabling RAPID mode results in a modest performance boost across the board, though its in the Starting Applications test that the biggest boost in performance is observed.
