Performance
As I already mentioned on this review’s previous page, the tests were performed on the ASUS TUF A15 laptop equipped with AMD Ryzen 7 4800H processor. This laptop is heating up above average but is also a realistic environment for an M.2 SSD, where is often limited airflow.
All tests were performed in Windows 10 Pro x64 with the latest updates.
Let’s begin with the ATTO Disk Benchmark, which is one of the most popular applications designed to measure storage bandwidth.
ATTO is usually showing lower than expected maximum bandwidth, but we can still see up to 3.23GB/s read bandwidth, which is a good result for any PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD.
Much better results are in CrystalDiskMark. This is probably the most popular benchmark used to test SSD performance.
Our results are confirming that the XD80 has no problems reaching advertised read and write bandwidth. The maximum read bandwidth passed 3458MB/s, while the write bandwidth passed 3114MB/s. Worth mentioning are amazing random bandwidth results. The XD80 is about as fast in random operations as many popular M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD.
Another benchmark is PCMark 8 and its storage test. Even though not new, this benchmark shows how the drive performs during a daily workload, so various popular applications. Results in this benchmark are great for the PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD, and only PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD show significantly better bandwidth. For example, Silicon Power US70 could pass 600MB/s in this test, but the total benchmark score wasn’t much higher.
PCMark 10 storage tests are similar to what we could see in the PCMark 8 but base on newer applications and additional tests.
The XD80 2TB performs well in all these mixed-load tests. Even though it’s not PCIe 4.0 SSD, then its performance is high regardless of the test. The XD80 should satisfy all those users who have older motherboards or laptops as it’s significantly faster than older generation SSD and still uses PCIe 3.0 interface.
In the end, Anvil’s Storage Utilities. It’s a benchmark that usually shows lower bandwidth than expected, and it’s like that in this situation. Even though results are high, then we can see only up to 2.5GB/s read and write bandwidth. It’s about the same situation as in previous Silicon Power M.2 SSD reviews.
The XD80 2TB SSD is for sure a great option for all those users who can’t use PCIe 4.0 SSD or don’t want to upgrade their hardware only because of the M.2 socket. The XD80 is a fast SSD which is great for any workload.
