Game loading, SPECwpc, Copy Torture, Temps
The first sub-10s cumulative time on Final Fantasy, but let's put it in appropriate context, because even a much older SATA-based SSD isn't that much slower. You are unlikely to feel the game-loading benefits of the best drives unless coming from a mechanical spinner.
The demanding SPEC test puts a workstation angle on storage proceedings. It's certainly no surprise to see SN850 pull away from other impressive solutions.
Copying over 20,000 files (93.8GB) back onto itself represents a good test of the drives' ability to handle lots of reads and writes. Performance graces the top of the charts again.
The one downside to next-generation performance on a non-heatsink-equipped drive is temperature, which is the highest we've seen thus far. For full disclosure, we run the drives in their bare state, unadorned by the motherboard's M.2 heatsink, providing a worst-case scenario for thermals, yet anyone contemplating one will likely house it under a motherboard M.2 heatsink. We re-ran the test with the Asus motherboard's M.2 cooling in place, which helped drop peak temperature down to a more acceptable 78°C.
In both cases, however, we noticed no obvious thermal throttling during these everyday workloads.