WD Black SN750 500GB Performance Testing
We are moving towards using larger test sizes on our benchmarks, but on several tests, we also used the smaller default test sizes. This allows us to see the difference between lighter and heavier workloads.
BlackMagic Disk Speed Test
This is a popular speed test in the video community. It shows whether a storage device is suitable for throughput required at a given video format.
As a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD, the WD Black SN750 500GB has a good showing here and handles every format this benchmark can test for. Some previously tested QLC-based PCIe 3.0 SSDs do not pass all these tests, and no SATA based drive can do so.
CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 x64
CrystalDiskMark is used as a basic starting point for benchmarks as it is something commonly run by end-users as a sanity check.
The WD Black SN750 500GB hits the rated 3430 MB/s read and 2600 MB/s write sequential transfer numbers here almost exactly. This performance is near the top end of what you can expect from a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD for reads, and just slightly behind the top-performing drives in writes.
Moving to the larger 8GB test set, reads hold steady but write speeds drop quite a bit.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO Disk Benchmark has been a staple of drive sequential performance testing for years. ATTO was tested at both 256MB and 8GB file sizes.
ATTO is always slightly harder on drives than CrystalDiskMark, and that is the case here. Read performance remains strong, and performance is very consistent throughout the test. However, write performance is a bit weaker than some other drives we have tested in the past.
Conflicting entirely with CrystalDiskMark, write performance in ATTO’s larger 8GB test is better than with the smaller test, though suffering a bit of variability over the course of the test. Read performance remains steady and largely consistent with other PCIe 3.0 SSDs.
Anvil’s Storage Utilities
Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a comprehensive benchmark that gives us a very in-depth look at the performance of drives tested. This benchmark was run with both a 1GB and 8GB test size.
In Anvil, the WD Black SN750 500GB has a very strong showing. For read score, it is the second best PCIe 3.0 SSD on the chart behind the SK hynix Gold P31, and every other drive above it is PCIe 4.0. The write score is not chart-topping but is still respectable.
The larger test set sees the SN750 fall to the Samsung 970 EVO Plus in read score, but only barely. Write score is a weak point for the SN750 on this larger test, with significant deficits in both sequential and random performance compared to some of the other drives in our benchmark set. Some of this behavior is likely explained by the smaller drive size, and if our test sample was 1TB like some of our comparative units, the drive likely would perform better.
AS SSD Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark is another good benchmark for testing SSDs. We run all three tests for our series. Like other utilities, it was run with both the default 1GB as well as a larger 10GB test set.
In AS SSD, the WD Black SN750 500GB turns in a competent performance, but nothing particularly special stands out.
Relative performance in the larger 10GB test set improves compares to the other drives in our test set. This is mostly due to the other drives dropping in score more than the SN750 does, and that performance consistency is definitely a good sign.
SPECworkstation, thermals, and our conclusion are up next.
