The Intel SSD 760p 512GB Review: Mainstream NVMe Done Right
by Billy Tallis on January 23, 2018 11:30 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - Light
Our Light storage test has relatively more sequential accesses and lower queue depths than The Destroyer or the Heavy test, and it's by far the shortest test overall. It's based largely on applications that aren't highly dependent on storage performance, so this is a test more of application launch times and file load times. This test can be seen as the sum of all the little delays in daily usage, but with the idle times trimmed to 25ms it takes less than half an hour to run. Details of the Light test can be found here. As with the ATSB Heavy test, this test is run with the drive both freshly erased and empty, and after filling the drive with sequential writes.
The Light test reveals bigger performance differences for full and empty drive states than the Heavy test, but the 760p doesn't suffer as much as most drives. The average data rates from the 760p are slightly higher than from the Intel SSD 750, and much higher than the 600p or the SATA drives. On the other hand, the TLC-based Samsung PM981 is almost twice as fast.
The average latency scores of the Intel SSD 760p are twice those of the fastest NVMe SSDs, but this isn't enough to amount to a noticeable difference on a light workload. The 99th percentile latencies are much higher than those of Samsung's NVMe drives, but are still faster than SATA SSDs.
The average read latencies from the Intel 760p fall into the middle of the range for NVMe SSDs, but the average write latencies are clearly on the high side of normal.
The 99th percentile read latencies of the 760p on the Light test are acceptable for a low-end NVMe SSD, but the full-drive score is actually slightly worse than the Intel 600p. On the write side, the 99th percentile latency is actually very slightly worse than good SATA SSDs, but the 760p doesn't get noticeably worse when full.
The two SM2260-based NVMe SSDs join the Toshiba XG5 this time as the most efficient NVMe SSDs ahead of the Intel 760p, but the SM2260-based 600p and GAMMIX S10 fall behind when the test is run on a full drive. The Samsung drives mostly use slightly more power than the 760p, but the PM981 ends up near the bottom of the chart.
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rrinker - Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - link
It's not just the speed, it's the handling. A better analogy might be one of the supercars that can hit 300mph.See, in my 25mph residential neighborhood, I often have people running up behind me wanting to go 40 or more. Then I take a turn without touching the brakes, and suddenly they disappear from my mirror. But then my 1993 pickup truck can do the same, so I guess I don't need my BMW after all.
Only - one of those old hard drives I still have in a drawer from 1993 just won't keep up with even the worst SSD I could buy.
Pastuch - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
The difference between a PC and a BMW is one of them will help you keep your virginity and the other will help you lose it. If the PC is a status symbol to you then I'd suggest you skip your next upgrade and buy yourself a new wardrobe. A 1080 Ti does not equal a hotter girlfriend.megapleb - Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - link
That's certainly the result i expect, but in a review, it feels like something that should be shown repeatedly. Without those results, I think the benchmarks can mislead people into poor buying decisions.Makaveli - Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - link
The Intel 750 still looks like the better drive to me just higher power usage.The $482 price from newegg is also outdated.
I can pick up a brand new 750 drive in Canada for $218 CAD which is $175 USD which is cheaper than the $199 price you have listed for the 760p.
The choice is obvious.
Billy Tallis - Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - link
I try to only make buying recommendations that our readers could actually follow through on. There is not much stock of new Intel 750s left, and even less that could be had for the kind of prices you're quoting. I wouldn't trust anyone selling a "new" 750 for $175 unless it was clearly a liquidation sale from a retailer that was going bankrupt.Makaveli - Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - link
This "anyone" isn't some hipster selling a used drive on eBay. Its a major retail chain in Canada think like micro center in the US. And you are right they are clearing stock for the newer stuff to come in and certainly not going bankrupt they have 35 store locations.Alistair - Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - link
Still his point stands that you are referring to a clearance price. Might only be for a week.Makaveli - Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - link
The price has actually been like that for well over a month.I'm picking up the 1.2TB drive today for $488!
Magichands8 - Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - link
M.2? But, why? And what's with the ridiculously high price/GB? It's 2018 and still for years and years nothing has changed in this industry. And we enter yet another year when SSD manufacturers have given me every reason to spend my money elsewhere.tylerdd - Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - link
Why isnt the intel 900p on any of the charts? It is the current storage king and its not on the charts as a comparison?