8 Best SSD Benchmark Software: Detailed Benchmark Guide

Want to know what your SSD can do? There are many software you can use to do so. Some of them are free while some are paid. With these software, we can put our SSDs through synthetic and real-world test environments to test their performance, efficiency, and overall impact on our daily tasks.

Before benchmarking an SSD, it is important to understand the benchmark parameters that you select before the tests and get the results. All these SSD benchmarking software we are going to discuss here will be a little different from each other and have their own purposes. For example, PCMark 10 and 3DMark are used for checking your drive’s performance for different tasks. One is for general purposes while one is specifically for gamers.

However, I haven’t just provided you with a list of the tools and their links. I have tried to guide you how you can benchmark your SSD using these software. So, without any further delays, let’s get started.

1. CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark or CDM is a very popular SSD and HDD benchmarking tool for Windows OS. It measures the sequential and random read/write performance of our drives. CDM does its job by reading and writing blocks of data to the drive we want to benchmark. The results constitute mainly of four parameters i.e. Sequential speeds (large files) Random speeds (small scattered files) Queue depths & thread performance (how well the drive handles multiple requests).

Step-by-Step SSD Benchmarking Process using CDM

CrystalDiskMark is easy to use and generally doesn’t require you to change any settings for normal tests. It provides the functionality for customized benchmarks but that is for high-end users. You also get custom profiles with pre-defined settings.

Step 1: Selecting the Storage Device

• The user selects the drive to be tested from the dropdown menu given at the top.
• CDM automatically identifies the drive type (NVMe, SATA SSD, HDD, etc.).

Keep in mind that if the drive is an OS drive (C:), Windows background processes might slightly affect results.

Step 2: Choosing Test Parameters

The user can configure different settings and choose various test profiles.

Choosing Benchmark Profiles

There are 10 pre-defined profiles to help you put your SSD in different test scenarios. Peak performance, real-world performance, and mixed performance are the most utilized ones. However, most people would keep the settings on default.

In my opinion, most people don’t have to dig deeper into the custom benchmark settings because they’ll have to understand the concepts first. We will try to do that below but these benchmark profiles are more than enough to get the most out of this software’s capabilities.

Custom Benchmark Settings

If you know fine-tune your benchmark using custom block size, queues, threads, measurement time, and interval timings, you can go to Settings options in the Settings menu. There you can adjust all these settings as per your choice.

In the custom settings, you get the option to change the test type, block size, queues, and threads. The Test Type simply allows you to choose between sequential and random tests.

• Sequential: Data is written contiguously (e.g., copying movies).
• Random: Data is scattered randomly across the SSD (e.g., OS tasks, gaming).

In simple words, random data and speed depict more of the daily tasks that we do on our computers. Sequential is mostly about moving heavy files of the same type here and there.

Block Size is the size of chunks of data read/written at a time. For example, a 1MiB file size is considered large and suitable for sequential tests. However, 4KB file size is for random benchmark which is a smaller size of data. You can set the block size between 4KiB and 8MiB.

Queue Depth is the number of pending read/write requests waiting to be processed by a drive. QD1 is considered low queue depth and simulates normal workloads like gaming, editing, operating systems, or other normal tasks. A queue Depth of 32 and more simulates the server and database workloads. In CrystalDiskMark custom settings, you can set the queue depth between 1 to 512.

Threads represent the number of tasks going on simultaneously. You can set it between 1 to 64 where 1 thread simulates basic files transfer and everyday computing while 16+ threads depict professional workloads and heavy multitasking.

Results

You can get the benchmark results in 4 formats i.e. MB/s, GB/s, IOPS, and µs. MB/s and GB/s give you the highest speed that this drive achieved. However, the IOPS is great for understanding the random performance and how many read/write operations a storage device can handle per second. Latency (µs) shows how long (in microseconds) it takes for a storage device to complete a single I/O operation.

2. AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD is much simpler than the CrystalDiskMark in terms of usability and features as well. You don’t get many options to change the test parameters. The results are easy to understand

Step-by-Step SSD Benchmarking Process using AS SSD Benchmark

With the AS SSD benchmark, you can just tick or un-tick the test parameters if you want to run them or not. However, you can change the file size by which the test is run. The default test size is 1GB but you can change it to 3GB, 5GB, or 10GB.

The 1GB test has a quick turnaround time. However, the write results can be affected by the SLC cache or DRAM. Higher file size i.e. 3GB or more will bypass the cache and provide you more realistic results.

If you go to the Tools section in the AS SSD main menu, you’ll find two separate test options i.e. Copy Benchmark and Compression Benchmark.

Copy Benchmark

The Copy benchmark test gives three results i.e. ISO, Program, and Game. The ISO test copies two large sequential files to measure the sequential read and write performance. This test gives you the speed along with the total duration of to move that file. The Program test simulates loading an application with multiple small files. The purpose is to check an SSD’s performance in loading and launching programs. The Game Test simulates loading gaming assets like maps, environments, audio, etc. It shows how well a game can handle gaming tasks, specifically the loading times.

These results can be better understood when you compare them with other drives. Stand alone, they just give you the numbers which are of no use to you in the real world.

Compression Benchmark

AS SSD comes with a dedicated compression benchmark as well. The selected file size would apply here as well. It gives you the result in the form of a graph starting from 0% compression to 100%.

The results can be hard to understand but keep in mind that a straight line is always ideal. Some SSDs handle compression much better than others, especially the ones that use controller-based compression. If the drive is showing a drop to the right side i.e. towards higher compression, it means the drive is struggling with incompressible data like encrypted files or video files. Some SSDs show a sudden drop in write speed because of the controller-based encryption.

3. ATTO Disk Benchmark

The ATTO Disk Benchmark is also a pretty popular benchmarking software for SSDs, HDDs, Flash drives, RAIDs, and most other storage drives. Compared to the CDM and AS SSD software, the ATTO Disk benchmark has many more features including multiple file sizes, queue depth customization, direct I/O, overlapped I/O, etc. You also get the option to bypass the cache and verify data. For I/O sizes, you can adjust the range or set it to a single size ranging from 512 bytes to 64 Megabytes.

It feels more like adjusting the Queue depth, file size, and I/O size manually but you won’t find it tough at all. Let’s see what you get in the ATTO Disk benchmark.

Step-by-Step SSD Benchmarking Process using ATTO Disk Benchmark

First of all, you choose the drive you want to benchmark. Then, it’s time to choose the I/O size. You get two dropdowns to set a range. However, if you want, you can set both of them to one I/O number and it will give you the results for the single I/O. I/O is the block size that tests an SSD’s performance with different sizes of data. The file size can be adjusted between 64KB and 32GB.

You can turn On or Off the Direct I/O which means you can enable or disable OS’s system cache. So, with this feature turned Off, you can expect raw results. However, the other option i.e. Bypass Write cache prevents the SSDs from using its dedicated write cache and does the read/write operations at the raw speed. The Verify Data option ensures the data integrity by confirming whether the written data matches the read data. It is useful for checking the bad blocks and other storage issues as well.

You should keep the verify data option disabled unless you are testing for drive integrity.

The results can be seen in Bytes/s or IO/s. It gives you both read and write scores for each I/O selected in the range, in this case, 512B to 128KB.

4. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (Mac)

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test is a popular storage benchmarking tool designed primarily for macOS. This software is mainly used for video production workflows and for professionals like filmmakers, video editors, VFX designers, and content creators. In terms of benchmark functionality, there isn’t much to customize. You can, however, change the test file size or what they call the stress. You can set it between 1GB and 5GB.

The output gives the read/write speed as well as the supported video formats. For each file format, the tested read-write scores are provided.

The best use case of this software is to check whether an SSD is fast enough for 4K and 8K editing. Also, external drives can be benchmarked.

5. Anvil’s Storage Utilities (Windows)

Anvil’s Storage Benchmark is a comprehensive benchmark software that gives us many details about our drives. We can simply run the ordinary SSD benchmark or do SSD endurance testing. Threaded I/O read and write tests are also available. You can also customize compression percentages. The test size can be set from 1 GB to 32 GB.

In the SSD benchmark, we get read response time, speed, and IOPS. The read parameters are Seq 4MB, 4K 4K QD4, 4K QD16, 32K, and 128K. The write parameters are Seq 4MB, 4K, 4K QD4, and 4K QD16. You can also run the read-and-write tests separately if you want. You get read score, write score, and combined score as well in the results.

6. PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is another comprehensive tool that tests the system’s overall performance. It simulates real-world tasks like browsing, video editing, file copying, office work, etc. But, we are going to focus on its capabilities as a storage benchmark tool. The storage benchmark in PCMark 10 is available only with its Professional variant.

There are three types of storage benchmarks you can run with PCMark 10 which are as follows.

1. Quick System Drive benchmark

The quick system drive benchmark takes around 20 minutes to complete and has basic tests with less demanding real-world traces. In total, this benchmark writes around 23 GB of data to the drive which gets deleted once the test is over. A minimum of 10GB of free space with a quad-core CPU and 4 GB of RAM is required to run this test.

There is nothing much to select before you start this test because it is automatic. You just select your drive to benchmark and the RUN button. The test will start automatically and you will see the results like this.

Full System Drive benchmark

The Full System Drive Benchmark on PCMARK10 takes around 1 hour to complete. It writes a total of 204 GB of data in total. This benchmark tests the drive under a wide range of real-world traces from popular software. For this test, your system should have at least 80GB of free space along with 8GB of RAM and a quad-core CPU.

Again, you just select your drive for benchmark and hit the RUN button. The test will start and you will see the results.

Drive Performance consistency test

This is a comprehensive test which runs for around 10 hours. It puts the SSDs through a heavy and continuous load and gives us in-depth insights into their performance. This test writes 23TB of data to the drive. It can write data up to 3 times the total drive space. However, it can significantly reduce the lifespan of your SSD in some drives with less TBW. To run this test, you need at least 80GB of free space on SSD with 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core CPU or higher.

PCMark 10 is the best benchmarking software (paid) with realistic results that depict how well an SSD will perform in real-world applications. If you want to test your SSD in the best way possible, you can’t do it without the PCMark. It gives you an overall score that you can compare

7. 3D Mark Storage Test for Gamers

3D Mark Storage Test is another paid benchmark software designed specifically for gaming computers. The Time Spy test is the most popular and effective test that you can use to test your system’s gaming capabilities. However, there is a dedicated storage test that tests your SSD’s performance in gaming scenarios. Just like the PCMark 10, you have to select your drive and hit RUN to perform the benchmark test. Everything will happen automatically.

This test measures your drive’s performance in gaming-related tasks such as loading games, saving progress, and moving the game. It does that for multiple games, like Battlefield, COD, and overwatch. In the results, you get an overall benchmark score which you can easily compare online with other systems. Also, you see the total bandwidth in different games and gaming tasks along with the average access time.

8. DiskBench

DiskBench is another free and easy-to-use benchmark scores for SSDs, HDDs, USBs, and network storage drives. This software is pretty basic with five types of tests. The Copy File and Copy Directory are simply the same tests using different types of files. You just choose your desired file or the directory from the computer and then choose the destination file where this file will be moved. Once the file transfer is done, you get results in the total time taken for this move and also the transfer rate in MB/s.

Now, professionals use this benchmark to curate and copy different types of files e.g. a set of random files or big video files (sequential data). This gives us realistic numbers on how long a specific type of file will take to move from one folder to another. You can choose between different drives and see the difference in the file copying. Other tests are for creating files, reading files, or creating batch files. All in all, the diskbench is a great benchmarking software where you want to calculate your drive’s performance in moving the files here and there. The ideal file size for testing different performance parameters is as follows.

Conclusion

I personally use these software in my daily work routine and hence I was able to explain them to you with my own screenshots. I hope this article will be of help to you. The comments are always open for your feedbacks. Thanks for reading!