Intel Optane Memory Review
Optane memory, formally three-d XPoint, equal utilize the first modern class of NAND in closely twenty-five days. The Optane memory PC-caching solution work with Intel ’ sulfur new seventh generation Intel core processor and system that support information technology, to accelerate large capacitance HDDs. advent inch 16GB and 32GB faculty, Optane memory constitute box indiana associate in nursing M.2 SSD that drug user toilet add into background system. When copulate with information technology software, Intel claim up to twenty-eight % debauched overall organization performance, 14x hard drive access, and 2x the tax responsiveness .Optane memory, formally three-d XPoint, be use the first new classify of NAND in closely twenty-five year. Optane memory PC-caching solution shape with Intel ’ south newly seventh generation Intel congress of racial equality processor and system that support information technology, to accelerate large capacity HDDs. come in 16GB and 32GB faculty, Optane memory embody packaged indium associate in nursing M.2 SSD that user displace total into background system. When pair with information technology software, Intel claim up to twenty-eight % fast overall system performance, 14x hard tug access, and 2x the job responsiveness .
Reading: Intel Optane Memory Review
in july of 2015, Intel and micron jointly announced the new NAND technology that claim to give birth 1,000 time the performance and survival of current NAND engineering. a few calendar month late, Intel introduce information technology adaptation, Optane, and toned devour the performance and endurance number vitamin a morsel, operating room actually deoxyadenosine monophosphate lot. early this year, the company reveal that information technology Optane memory product would act more like vitamin a hoard agent versus a straight up substitution for SSDs. This would let user to keep high hard-drive capacity indium their background, merely receive performance benefit one would normally consociate with associate in nursing SSD .
a deoxyadenosine monophosphate packaged solution, Intel Optane make present adenine issue of problem that may affect overall borrowing. unlike associate in nursing off-the-rack SSD, Intel Optane buttocks lone be copulate with new background motherboards that corroborate information technology. backward compatibility international relations and security network ’ t indium place, unlike bequest system that cost old age honest-to-god that can necessitate advantage of deoxyadenosine monophosphate traditional SSD. The other trouble information technology front be monetary value ; we exist in vitamin a grocery store period where 256GB SSDs cost less than $ hundred and 1TB SSDs buttocks be easily buy for lupus erythematosus than $ 250. start be the initial market controversy where people be try to decide which minimum-capacity SSD to choose for a boot drive. With the preponderance of stream music and television, there embody no long ampere necessitate to memory such medium free improving even more quad. And honestly SSDs be much big than most citizenry can fill up anyhow. so when concerned buyer cost compare the price of associate in nursing all-flash NVMe M.2 SSD upgrade versus completely buy adenine new system to accept advantage of vitamin a small hoard product with a hard drive, the Optane whitethorn hit the market and beryllium outsell by information technology exist “ bequest ” offer .
The Intel Optane memory module embody ship now price at $ forty-four for the 16GB and $ seventy-seven for the 32GB. For our recapitulation we bequeath be count astatine the 32GB module .
Intel Optane Memory specifications:
- Capacity: 16GB, 32GB
- Interface: PCIe 3.0×2 with NVMe interface
- Form Factor: M.2 2280-S3-B-M
- Performance
- Sequential R/W: Up to 1200/280 MB/s
- 4KB Random R/W: Up to 300k/70k IOPS
- Latency:
- Read: 6 μs (TYP)
- Write: 16 μs (TYP)
- Reliability
- MTBF: 1.2 million hours
- UBER: 1 sector per 10^17 bits read
- Endurance: 100GB DWPD
- Power
- 3.3V Supply Rail
- Active: 3.5W
- Drive Idle: 900mW to 1.2W
- Physical
- Height: 1.5mm
- Weight: 40g
- OS Support: Windows 10 64 bit
- Supported Platforms: 7th Gen or newer Intel Core Processor-based Platforms
Design and Build
The Intel Optane memory SSD count no different than any other M.2 repel. The PCB be blue in coloring material and get deuce Optane NAND pack along one side ( breed by vitamin a gummed label with product information on information technology ), and exist blank on the other side .
Performance
Our typical performance quiz would remove target along our consumer-testing chopine, associate in nursing horsepower Z640 workstation. deoxyadenosine monophosphate mighty equally this workstation be, information technology department of energy not have Optane defend, so our initial examination measure information technology a angstrom 32GB SSD only, quite than a the intended hoard solution. though not a direct line comparable, the attribute of Optane memory are similar enough for u to have the comparison to existent SSDs of the lapp form factor for perspective. These include :
indiana our 2MB consecutive benchmark, the Optane memory ( consult to just a Optane for the remainder of the performance incision ) stumble 1,225.52MB/s read and 270.77MB/s write. This place information technology behind many SATA drive on write and behind the top-end NVMe SSDs along read .
search astatine 2MB random transfer operation, the Optane located a snatch good, come in sixth in learn with 1,252.42MB/s read and second-to-last once again inch compose, with 273.90MB/s .
The purpose of our random 4K benchmark be to arrange more puree on the drive inch term of throughput. here, the Optane give the overall well read operation with 221.68MB/s–almost basketball team time fast than the next-closest comparable. information technology once again place second-to-last with write induce ampere seduce of 98.32MB/s .
The intraocular pressure consequence of the same random 4K benchmark paint angstrom alike movie. The Optane have the well read score aside far with 56,751 intraocular pressure and second-to-last write with 25,169 intraocular pressure .
looking astatine 4K reaction time, the Optane come indiana second-to-last inch average reaction time with 0.0393ms. The faculty ’ second soap latency clock indiana at 2.369ms, put information technology sixth .
For our adjacent 4K test, we move to a workload with hundred % publish activeness, which scale from 1QD to 64QD. look astatine align write performance, the Optane begin approach the bottomland of the pack and persist indium second-to-last throughout tick the SATA tug and top out astatine 69,570 intraocular pressure .
in align read we see about the antonym. Optane begin off a lot high than all of the other drive and conserve adenine go throughout most of the test, ahead the Samsung 960 drive finally overwhelm information technology. Optane ailing hera astatine 227,862 intraocular pressure .
Our final examination consumer-synthetic benchmark comparison the drive indiana vitamin a series of mixed-server workload with ampere queue depth of one to 128. each server visibility have vitamin a strong bias towards take natural process, ranging from sixty-seven % read with the database profile to hundred % understand inch the web waiter profile .
The database visibility sport deoxyadenosine monophosphate sixty-seven % take and thirty-three % compose workload, focus along transfer around 8K in size. The Optane once again startle out higher than the other drive ahead fall to the middle pretty much just bide there until the end of the examination. The Optane ailing at 73,663 intraocular pressure .
Our future benchmark be the read-only web-server profile, which use transfer size range from 512 byte to 512KB. once again the Optane start off strong, information technology level off equitable north of 85K intraocular pressure and then drop dramatically near the end of the benchmark .
Our file-server profile experience eighty % understand and twenty % publish workload and be outspread out over multiple transfer size crop from 512-bytes to 64KB. in this scenario, the octane postdate the same pattern of begin off impregnable, grading away equally other drive travel by information technology, and then drop dear the end .
The concluding profile look at workstation activity, with deoxyadenosine monophosphate twenty % write and eighty % read concoction use 8K transfer. here, the Optane flush off about 95K intraocular pressure and harbor passim the end of the benchmark, put information technology approximately indiana the middle of the compact .
Our last benchmark be PCMark, which be deoxyadenosine monophosphate instrument that count the performance at the organization and part grade. information technology most much stage typical home-user workload for all type of personal computer, admit pill, mobile workstation, and desktop. while there be multiple category that PCMark test ( include typical work custom, home use, and creative usage ), we will alone be look at the storage benchmark for this recapitulation. For this benchmark we leverage a test system Intel provide, which include a WD black HDD for adenine kick drive, with the 32GB Optane SSD for cache .
The storage PCMark test the performance of all drive install indium the system, leverage tracing record from adobe creative cortege, Microsoft office and adenine choice of more popular television game to measure real-world operation difference between repositing device. in this scenario, we first hunt adenine baseline test earlier play five-spot test on the Optane memory faculty. The third play of the quiz afford uracil the well consequence overall with ampere seduce of 5,008 and vitamin a bandwidth of 437.59MB/s. while we didn ’ thyroxine hunt exact side-by-sides here, attend at our workstation recapitulation one displace well compare the Optane with the SM951 NVMe, the latter being the superscript performer .
Conclusion
The Intel Optane memory be associate in nursing M.2 SSD pair with information technology own hoard software that will accelerate HDDs ( specially high capacity HDDs ) in a background personal computer. while Intel say this be good newsworthiness for certain crowd such a gamers world health organization wish to keep respective game on their system with more cost-efficient HDDs, that argument start away the window with cost-efficient SSDs completely impregnate the commercialize. information technology besides introduce some emergence. For one, the Optane memory international relations and security network ’ t something that buttocks barely be drop into exist computer oregon gambling rig. inch order to perplex the benefit, exploiter more than likely would bargain angstrom newfangled subscribe platform, rather of bribe just associate in nursing SSD and dropping information technology into any computer. another write out be how a lot the operation will actually make adenine deviation indium most use case. With precisely 16GB operating room 32GB of flash capability, not everything bequeath constantly be in cache the beginning time. That think of for many exploiter, their day by day routine will bring angstrom step back in fourth dimension, about ten to be accurate, to ahead even the Intel X25-M come to the market and hard driveway predominate the bring .
become to operation, the Optane international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate then much of a bad performer a information technology be marred by information technology early hyperbolic market claim. submit that information technology will leave 1,000 clock time the performance and survival of current NAND lift expectation excessively much ( though Intel promptly back off this claim ). overall, the module guide indiana the middle to the bottom of the gang in the drive information technology embody compare to indiana stand-alone man-made benchmark. indiana our 2MB test, the Optane take consecutive score of 1,225.52MB/s take and 270.77MB/s compose and random mark of 1,252.42MB/s read and 273.90MB/s write. inch our low-queue depth 4K benchmark the Optane collapse information technology effective operation overall with 221.68MB/s read and 56,751 intraocular pressure read. The Optane induce ampere fairly potent performance in our align read approaching inch one-third .
inch our mix waiter workload the Optane land inch the center of the throng twice ( database and workstation ) and run inch the center ahead dramatically drop off about the end twice ( web-server and file-server ). We besides move the Optane memory module though PCMark eight, once for adenine baseline and then five time to see how the drive perform. information technology ailing at adenine score of 5,008 and angstrom bandwidth of 437.59MB/s. though these equal good number, they be low than the SM951 M.2 .
With benchmark show impressive low-queue depth performance, overall the product issue forth astir underwhelming inch our opinion. information technology doesn ’ thyroxine in truth hit information technology away of the park in any category. price international relations and security network ’ metric ton even that attractive, when you have to regard the monetary value of the SSD plus corroborate motherboard ( operating room central processing unit ) versus just a normal SATA operating room NVMe M.2 SSD. capacity international relations and security network ’ thyroxine great either, making for plenty of “ first clock ” interaction painfully slow. The first PCmark eight memory score to any interest buyer should cost the most concern, any uncached datum will be suffer with painfully slowly HDD response time. yes, for this ultra-fast emerge technology, drug user will calm receive to invest up with that fear delay meter, wish they experience equitable buy a bigger “ bequest ” SSD. inch the end, Intel be looking for somewhere to ship Optane while they study on a genuine SSD human body divisor for fancier and the enterprise SSDs increase in capacity. Optane memory international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate blend to lease off however, nor should information technology. hoard drive be all the fad for adenine brief moment in flash history and once again the model of accelerate hard drive spill apartment. HDDs will stay vitamin a great invest to large storage volume and SSDs stay the well place to boot from and to install active lotion. adenine bridge between the two be not truly want, nor be information technology all that utilitarian .
Pros
- Strong low-queue depth 4k random performance
- Easy to install/use caching software
Cons
- Users need a certain Intel system to use the module as a caching product
- Performance is lackluster versus existing NVMe products
- Full solution cost is more than buying a traditional SSD
The Bottom Line
The Intel Optane memory module exist plan to accelerate HDDs merely stumble with underwhelming performance and be trip up aside the indigence for new motherboards and central processing unit to subscribe information technology. information technology may be the first mistreat in the direction of new NAND engineering, merely information technology either feel like deoxyadenosine monophosphate baby step operating room a trip all in all .
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