Setup and test results …
Let us now turn to the benchmark results. The test results for SATA3 drives are compared with an ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard and the test results for M.2 modules are performed with an ASRock Z270 Taichi motherboard. Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition and Windows 10 Enterprise Edition 64-bit are currently used as operating system.
With the following SSD benchmark software the drive was checked and compared for the possible speed:
AS SSD Benchmark – Download
ATTO Disk Benchmark – Download
CrystalDiskMark – Download
HD Tach – Download
SiSoftware Sandra – Download
The AS SSD benchmark values provide a very good indication of the maximum possible read and write speed, the speed for smaller files and their respective access time. By the way, 4K means that small 4K blocks are read or written and with 4K 64Thrd this is distributed to 64 threads at the same time. For example, the benchmark program simulates a typical program start.
With the 500GB Crucial M.2 P2 drive an extremely high sequential read and write speed could be achieved, which is of course significantly higher than conventional SATA SSDs and in terms of read performance even significantly higher than the Crucial P1 SSD.
By the way, the usable capacity of the Crucial P2 M.2 is 465.76 GB and the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe reaches 1093 points.
Here is a screenshot of the AS SSD benchmark values (Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe Intel test system):
And here is another screenshot of the AS SSD iops results (Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe Intel test system)
Here is a screenshot of the AS SSD copy benchmark results (Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe Intel test system)
The comparison of the AS SSD benchmark results is extended with every new HDD/SSD test. You can already see some SSDs compared to the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD, with the graphics regularly updated with new SSD drives. At the time of testing, the top of the AS SSD total score is led by the Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 NMVe SSD, followed by a few more SSDs, and in the middle of the range is the new P2 M.2 SSD with 500GB capacity before the Crucial P1 1TB.
Here is a comparison of the AS SSD benchmark results, which are gradually being expanded with new drives:
And here is an excerpt of the latest AS SSD benchmark results. For better overview, they will be gradually replaced with latest drives:
The ATTO disk benchmark results gives a very good overview about the write and read rate on different file sizes. These values are maximum ratings, which are different to the previously continuous transfer rate benchmarks, as this benchmark can be higher even with SSDs with a slower overall performance.
In the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD, the reading speed (green) is already above the writing speed (red) starting at a transfer size of about 0.5KB and reaches the maximum reading values of 3107504KB with a transfer size of 4096KB.
Here is a screenshot of the ATTO disk benchmark values (M.2 NVMe):
These ATTO disk benchmark values are now compared for a small transfer of 32KB and a large transfer of 8192KB. The bar chart already includes a comparison to some SSDs and hard drives, with the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD taking the lead at ATTO even before the Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 SSD.
Here is a comparison of the ATTO disk benchmark values, which will gradually be expanded with more new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest ATTO disk benchmark results for a better overview, which will be replaced with the latest drives gradually:
With CrystalDiskMark you also get a balanced measurement of performance with different transfer sizes.
Here the P2 500GB achieves, as before, very good sequential read values of 1631 MB/s and even write values of 1741 MB/s in addition to the 4K-64 threads values.
Here is a screenshot of the CrystalDiskMark values (M.2 NVMe)
The following diagram shows the CrystalDiskMark results in comparison to the other SSDs and hard drives, which are being expanded step by step. The CrystalDiskMark comparison clearly shows the differences between the solid state drives and hard drives tested so far.
Here is a comparison of the CrystalDiskMark values, which will be gradually expanded with more new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest CrystalDiskMark ratings for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
The HD Tach benchmark rates show the course of the performance very nicely, but it’s clearly different in an SSD than in a conventional HDD. Due to the new logical management of the SSD controllers when accessing the NAND cells, the results with the HD Tach version 3.0.4.0, which is designed for hard disks, can fluctuate as with similarly constructed SSDs.
HD Tach shows with the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 SSD in AHCI mode during read operations a usual continuous transfer image with the low access time of 0.1ms. You can see clear peaks during the write operations.
For easy comparison, the values of the previous SSD tests can be selected and viewed via a drop-down field.
Here is a screenshot of the HD Tach benchmark results:
In order to see how the 64 Layer 3D TLC NAND Flash behaves with the controller used during a larger file transfer, we additionally executed the time-consuming Long Bench once again. However, you don’t see a stronger performance drop at longer write rates, which we normally know from TLC SSDs.
Here is a comparison of the HD Tach benchmark values, which are gradually being expanded with new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest HD Tach benchmark values for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
SiSoftware Sandra benchmark results
The SiSoftware Sandra benchmark is of course a must in the test series. With the SiSoft Sandra program, SiSoftware has had a very comprehensive tool on the market for several years, with which very reliable test results can be obtained from all hardware components.
The average access time of the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD at SiSoftware Sandra was low at 42us and the drive index of 1882.31 MB/s is a great value!
Here is a screenshot of SiSoftware Sandra benchmark read rates (M.2 NVMe)
In the SiSoftware Sandra write performance measurement, the average access time of the Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD was also at an extremely low 19us and the drive index reached very high 1743.74 MB/s.
Here is a screenshot of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark write performance (M.2 NVMe)
Here is a comparison of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark values, which are gradually being expanded with more new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest SiSoftware Sandra benchmark values for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
Crucial P2 500GB M.2 NVMe Result and general impression …