We like PCMark 8's Storage 2.0 benchmark module for its real-world application measurement approach to testing. PCMark 8 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 and photo editing with Adobe applications, we feel 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.
The Samsung SSD 860 EVO put up some strong numbers in PCMark's Storage 2.0 tests. Overall, it trailed the
SSD 860 Pro and Intel drives in the bandwidth tests, but its total PCMark Score and the results of the individual tests put the 860 EVO near the head of the pack.
